To live a healthy life there are many things one should do – eat balanced meals, exercise, happiness, and going to your checkups. If you do fall under being homo sapiens, then you’ve been sick at least once in your life and have needed to get some sort of prescription or surgery. The cost of those might be sky rocket high if you don’t have health insurance – sometimes with health insurance, it’s still a lot for a small bottle of pills or a simple surgery. Other countries boast about their universal health care, so why doesn’t the U.S. get in on this?
Universal health care or universal health coverage “is a specific type of health care where everyone is provided coverage regardless of their income, race, age, pre-existing conditions, gender, or wealth” (What is). Basically, if you are resident of that country, then you can get health coverage. Nothing complicated about that. The purposed this type of health care “is to provide all citizens with an opportunity to obtain the health care that they may need without having to worry about financial hardship” (What is).
Why do some countries not have this? “The usual reason given for not attempting to provide universal healthcare in a country is poverty” (Sen, Amartya). The case for the U.S. is that of a private life. They don’t want the government to be in their lives like that. Universal health care can “powerfully enhance the health of people, it’s rewards go well beyond health,” in that there’s a strong comparison of economic performance and positive interdependence for that country (Sen, Amartya).
The U.S. spends so much on health care than any other advanced country, but also has the worse health outcomes. “With lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and higher obesity rates than comparable countries like Australia, Canada, and France” (Callaghan). With that, there are three reasons the U.S. doesn’t want this healthcare system. 1. That we don’t want it. “Americans are more likely to be individualistic. [They] have a strong belief in classical liberalism and the idea that the government should play a limited role in society. 2. Interest groups don’t want it. 3. Entitlement programs are hard in general to enact” (Callaghan).
The United States would benefit with universal health care, but it looks like that won’t be happening for a long while. Not while Trump is president and with this state of society being more concerned with gun laws, than the actual health of each other. It would take a lot to really nail it down because America is too proud.
As a result, the U.S. will not be seeing universal health care anytime soon, even though we would benefit from it as we have seen with other countries. America is too proud and individualistic. Plus, they don’t want the government meddling in their lives at such a private health level. While understandable, many feel this type of health care would benefit the economy and well-beings of their people, they might actually begin to see the good changes that they were promised.
Sen, Amartya, et al. “Harvard Public Health Review: A Student Publication.” Universal Health Care: The Affordable Dream | Harvard Public Health Review: A Student Publication, harvardpublichealthreview.org/universal-health-care-the-affordable-dream/.
“What Is Universal Health Care?” Study.com, Study.com, study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-universal-health-care-definition-pros-and-cons.html.
Callaghan, Timothy. “Three Reasons the US Doesn’t Have Universal Health Coverage.” The Conversation, The Conversation, 15 June 2018, theconversation.com/three-reasons-the-us-doesnt-have-universal-health-coverage-67292.
