Kiana Cornish
Why is health care such a controversial topic in the united states? How is it in other states? Should it be available to everyone no matter the social class?
Health care has been a debatable topic in the united states for centuries. I believe that everyone should be able to receive health care in the united states because every citizen is entitled to seek help in times of need. It all ties back to being upper class, middle class or lower class. People who can afford to pay the high medical bills when going to the hospital or seeking medical attention, don’t have to worry about being in debt. They can receive the best medical attention there is because for them “health doesn’t have a price.” This is a quote that a friend of mines parent said, and in this case they are very wealthy therefore spending money in order to protect themselves from being sick doesn’t seem like something out of the ordinary. For other families that don’t have the benefits of being rich, they have to worry about and consider specific doctors that won’t be too expensive. Which than puts a damper on the type of medical attention they receive, because in many cases the less money you have…the worse medical attention you get. This is displayed several times in the movie “Sicko.” Many people in the movie were not able to get insurance because they could not afford it. This was because they wouldn’t be able to pay for their bills which shames America because this is suppose to be the country of opportunity but if a person cant even get medical attention because they don’t have enough money…than it shows just how much opportunity this country offers if a person doesn’t have large amounts of money. There was a situation with an old married couple in which the husband had to continue to work even though he should have been retired, this was because his wife’s medical bill had to be paid. There we have old people working in order to pay off medical bills, but on the other hand we have rich people sitting back relaxing without a care in the world because they are able to afford basically anything. Shouldn’t America help out the people in need and make health care cheaper or free for them? Instead, the only people being helped out are the rich people.
When learning about health care in class, we learned about the different types off health care services. Different services that stood out to me were single player, socialized, and HMOS. In a single player health care system everyone is covered by the same plan which pays private providers. This than means that there is no competition to be dealt with, and all patients get the best medical attention available to them no matter what. In socialized health care, the health care is provided by the government, and in HMOs you join a network of consumers and the network pays for the health care. This is the service that most Americans have. Although it is obvious that this isn’t the best health care there is, it still hasn’t changed the way the united states deal with health care. I believe that health care in the united states should change to either single player or socialized health care because this would allow everyone, rich or poor, to receive much needed health care. Although HMOS sometimes decrease the cost for medical assistance in some cases, they still deny thousands of people because of the simple fact of not being able to pay a certain amount of money.
The health situation in Canada is that they have a national health insurance program, which makes sure that all citizens have access to any kind of medical assistance needed. “Instead of having a single national plan, we have a national program that is composed of 13 interlocking provincial and territorial health insurance plans, all of which share certain common features and basic standards of coverage.” (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hcs-sss/medi-assur/index-eng.php)
The health situation in France is that all legal residents of France are covered by public health insurance, which is one of the social security system's entitlement programs. This makes sure that citizens of France always have the medical attention they need no matter the expenses. (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/9994.php)
Something that stood out to me when learning about this unit was the universal health care plan that Hillary Clinton had proposed but was so badly badgered because of it. To me it seemed very sad that Americans in the political world would disagree with Hillary’s idea to give health care to all of Americans. This showed the priorities of many of the important political figures and how they cared more about making good profits instead of being concerned with the health of citizens of the United States. Now in America some people are covered under government health plans through programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). People that do not receive this often receive health care through their employer, or through private insurance for which they have to pay out of their own pockets. Though this seems to provide most with health care, there are about 40 million people in the USA do not have health insurance at all which reveals that the health statistics for the uninsured are far worse than the statistics for those with insurance.
(http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=763)
I still don’t see why the united states wont change to universal health care. Is it because they don’t want Americans to abuse it and go seek medical attention when it really isn’t needed?
Can they not afford to fund it? Whatever the reasons may be, I believe that the health care system that we have now should definitely change.
