I am sure all would agree that healthcare in the United States should be a right for all that citizens. According to Kovner and Knickman 2011, “keeping people healthy is the business of the public health system” (p. 4). However, healthcare continues to face challenges in organizing cost, quality and access to care. As such, Policy makers and healthcare managers are fixed on addressing the issues of “creating a better system that gets quality and cost right” (Media, Healthcare Delivery Part 1. ) The healthcare system presently in the United States (U. S. ) I believe is a privilege for those who can afford it.
If one should look at the statistics of people in the U. S. who have access to healthcare and those who do not, it shows that about 46 million people in the U. S. have no healthcare insurance; about 60 million have no access to medical care, and 180,000 Americans die every year from preventable disease, as per Senator Saunders on the topic of Health Care Is a Right, Not a Privilege in the Huffington post. In order to make healthcare affordable and justifiable where all citizens can have access to healthcare, this is where the role of the government is essential to control the dominance of private insurance companies in healthcare.
In the article, Healthcare-Right or Privilege? By Vera Moldt in the Peninsula Democratic World Press dated January 2013; it mentions that the major reason for bankruptcy in the U. S. is Medical Bills (Moldt, 2013). If one does not have Insurance, Medicaid, or Medicare the medical cost is an out of pocket expense. This force the uninsured to delay seeking medical help for health issues sometimes until it is too late and the condition cannot be treated. With this fact, American remains the wealthiest country in the world with the best technology in healthcare.
Data from the “WHO (2010) shows that life expectancy in the U. S. ranks very high when compared to the rest of the world. However, the less affluent citizens go without [essential] healthcare that can preserve and save their lives” (Moldt, 2013). Henceforth, the government continues to work feverishly by implementing healthcare reforms to make healthcare mandatory for all citizens. An aspect of the healthcare reform that has already been endorsed is The Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act which was signed into law on March 23, 2010.