Should The Government Provide Free Health Care in America

In the United States of America, we hold pride in our freedom and continue to fight for our rights. Well if our land is free should the government provide free health care? Within this argumentative essay I state that person’s health is a significant component of who they are, and as Americans, taking away the right to receive medical care is simply unjust and doesn’t comply with what we stand for. It would be great to have free healthcare nationwide. It’s almost as virtuous as world peace. But what exactly is free healthcare and how could it benefit our country?

Well, in simple terms free healthcare is the epitome of a human right: the right to live. The United States is the only OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development) nation that does not have universal health care. On December 10, 1948, the United States and 47 other countries signed the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights which stated, “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health ad well-being of oneself and the one’s family, including... medical care.” As of 2019, over 130 countries have a right to health care in their national constitutions; and out of 33 developed countries, only 32 have universal health care which is the United States.

Although free healthcare isn’t completely free, it is still cheaper than paying thousands of dollars for a medical bill, despite the rise in our taxes. The average cost of 1 hospital visit can reach around $10,000 according to Healthcare.gov. The high cost of medical coverage has cost people way more than just their money. Uninsured individuals go through plenty of risks to survive. The number of uninsured citizens in America has increased by 2 million people and continues to increase. Among that, there are 28 million people without coverage. According to Kaiser Health News, 8.5% of the U.S. population went without medical insurance for all of 2018.

Some perform medical care on their own or seek out home remedies. Consequently, they must be hospitalized, for their complications get worse due to preventable issues; thus, being hit with that insanely large bill. Along with the charges being so high, the debt rate in America keeps getting higher; and “for years, [medical debt has] been the #1 reason people file for bankruptcy”. But why do we have such high costs and such low quality?

Believe it or not, the quality of America’s medical care is low. It ranks 28th according to the United Nations. The leading cause of death was medical errors. A study by the Commonwealth Fund found that due to the lack of effective health care, the United States ranked at the bottom of a list of 16 rich nations in terms of preventable mortality. In other developed countries like Italy, Spain, France, Australia, Israel, and Norway, all countries with a right to health care, it is found that they live up to five years longer than people in the United States. Above all else, our infant mortality rate is among the highest. Considering the United States is a very wealthy country, we should be able to provide free health care to everyone. Disregarding all our other national debts, the United States spent $10,209 per person on health care in 2017, according to Procon.org. With that amount of money, the U.S. should have enough to provide everyone with the right to free health care.

No amount of money, however, could assume that free healthcare is possible or the best decision for our country. With every reason why we should, there is always a reason why we shouldn’t. One of those reasons is said to be the wait time for medical emergencies or any services provided by medical experts. In President Trump’s recent executive order on health care, he stated that creating coverage under health care would “force patients to face massive wait times for treatments and destroy access to quality care,” and claiming that it would “increase your wait times, ration quality care, and stifle innovation.” But the President’s opinions and others alongside him can easily be dismissed.

If we stop and think about it, the wait times are already long. However, wait times depend on the patient’s location of residence, there are many circumstances in which other universally covered countries have shorter wait times. The Commonwealth Fund held a comparative data in their series “Mirror, Mirror” in 2017, which examined a variety of measures across 10 European countries and the United States. According to the study, “Patients reported that they saw the doctor or nurse on the same day or next day... two months or longer... and four months or longer for elective or nonemergency surgery”. In this specific study, the United States performed the worst out of several other nations with free health care, concluding that longer wait times and free health care aren’t mutually inclusive.

Another problem found in free health care in America is that with the low cost of medical care, there’s a chance it could lower the quality of disease screening and treatment. It is said that countries with a universal health care system have worse outcomes in disease treatment than countries without free health care:

The situation is worst in low and middle-income countries where 10 percent of hospitalized patients can expect to acquire an infection during their stay, as compared to seven percent in high-income countries. This is despite hospital-acquired infections being easily avoided through better hygiene, improved infection control practices and appropriate use of antimicrobials. At the same time, one in ten patients is harm during medical treatment in high-income countries.

Fortunately, there has been some improvement with the quality such as survival rates for cancer and cardiovascular disease. Researchers from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy documented that “Medicare beneficiaries who lived in high-sending areas received approximately 60% more services than did those who lived in low-spending areas”. So, to say that paying more for coverage obtains better quality could be valid however, paying more for medical coverage doesn’t mean better access to the supply's humans needs to survive.

Evidence suggests that universal health coverage generally leads to better access to necessary care and improved population health, specifically poor people. Like I stated before about the uninsured rate and the number of people unable to pay for coverage, there are “11.4 million uninsured working-age Americans with chronic conditions”. Almost have of all Americans suffer from at least one chronic disease and “nearly 2/3 of deaths are caused by one or more of five chronic diseases: heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and diabetes”. The only problem with dealing with these illnesses is the cost. With our population continuously increasing and our medical advances, this only brings us to the conclusion that these issues are only going to rise if they are not effectively taken care of now.

So, therefore, it is proven that uninsured Americans have poorer access to medical care than their insured peers and allowing the United States to provide free healthcare to its citizens would benefit the nation in many good ways. Free health care is a human right and we shouldn’t allow our people to suffer any longer. Simply just allowing Americans to have their medical expenses covered is what we stand for: human rights. After all, if other nations are doing it, there must be a lot of good coming out of it.