Is Health Care is a Right Or a Privilege: The State of Us System

According to Kaiser Health News, health care has become more expensive due to a variety of factors such as the fee-for-service system, disease burden, and advancements in both medical and technological advancements, insurance tax, to name a few. Similarly in my opinion if I should answer the question “Is health care is a privilege rather than a right?” I will explain it in this essay. 

Health care in the United States is not a right, and being a US citizen does not automatically qualify one for its provision. Today, millions of US citizens do not have access to insurance coverage, and a large number of people have insufficient coverage for acute care, particularly those from low socioeconomic backgrounds, who have the worst health outcomes.

Health care in the United States is a luxury in that most hospitals provide high-quality health care, but the government cannot provide high-quality health care to all of its citizens due to the high costs involved, leaving citizens to fend for themselves. This has resulted in disparities in health care provision because only a few privileged can afford to pay for expensive health care services, leaving the unprivileged without access to health care because they cannot afford the high cost of the service.

Regardless, the government has used more resources to close the gap, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in 2010 in an attempt to cover more of its citizens. The main goal of the act was to share the obligations of the government, employers, and individuals to ensure that all citizens have access to affordable and high-quality health insurance. This effort is bearing some fruit, though the full impact has yet to be felt, but with proper implementation of the ACA, monitoring, and evaluation of the entire process, health care inequity will be greatly reduced and overall health equity will be achieved.

One of these factors is social determinants, which are economic and social conditions that have an impact on the health of people and communities, such as education, health care access and quality, neighbourhood and built environs, social and community context, economic stability, and so on. Social determinants of health and health disparities have impacts on health outcomes, particularly for vulnerable populations in the United States. For example, individuals living in poverty are less likely to have access to health insurance, resulting in a disease burden and an unhealthy population that hinders productivity and education. Health disparities continue to cost Americans lives and livelihoods as a result of environmental factors such as nutrition, sedentary lifestyle, pollution, and other biological factors that can contribute to chronic diseases such as obesity and other lifestyle diseases; all of this hurts economic stability, mortality rate and morbidity, and overall populace health.

Finally, consider the high cost of health care. If the out-of-pocket costs for health care services are prohibitively high, some older adults will postpone or forego nonurgent care. Receiving care late can worsen health conditions, cause diagnoses to be delayed, resulting in poorer health outcomes, and increase overall health care spending. Care that is postponed or never received may have a financial impact on Medicare. Evidence suggests that skipping out on health care is linked to poor health outcomes and an increased risk of hospitalization.

References

• Knickman, J. R., & Kovner, A. R. (2015). Health care delivery in the united states (11th ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing