¶ … universal health care in the U.S. There are numerous compelling arguments in favor of establishing universal health care access in the U.S.; this essay surveys the literature on this topic and presents these arguments.
Providing universal health care would benefit the country as a whole. According to Reuters, Harvard Medical School researchers found that each year nearly 45,000 people, or one every 12 minutes, die because they cannot get medical care (Heavey, 2009). This tragedy happens because Americans lack universal health care.
Access to universal health care should be a right of citizenship, not a privilege reserved for the wealthy and powerful. The U.S. is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not have universal health care. As of 2011, thirty-two of the thirty-three developed nations have universal health care; the U.S. is the only exception (COTO Report, 2011).
A particularly convincing argument in favor of universal healthcare is that it would improve the broken health care system that currently exists. While many believe that the U.S. already has the best health care system in the world, this belief is contradicted by the following facts:
As of 2008, the U.S. ranked 29th worldwide in infant mortality, dropping from 12th in 1960. The U.S. is clearly growing worse by comparison with other developed countries (DeNoon, 2008).
As of 2007, U.S. women's life expectancy was 35th among developed countries, down from 20th in 1987 (Park, 2011).
As of 2007,...
3). In the same Hastings Center Report as the above quoted article, another article reiterates, "One widely accepted way of justifying universal access to health care is to argue that access to health care is necessary to ensure health, which is necessary to provide equality of opportunity, but the evidence on the social determinants of hearth undermines this argument" (Sreenivasan, 2007, pg. 21). Though the literature offers sound reasons why a
Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature Chapter Introduction This chapter provides the background and an overview of the debate concerning national health insurance and the issues surrounding the provision of universal health care in the United States. A discussion of the implications of universal health care for private insurance carriers and other stakeholders is followed by a review of the criticisms being directed at current efforts to reform health care in the
Overview The notion of universal health care in the United States is a decidedly polarizing one, which is why this author chose it. Universal health care is a single payer system in which healthcare is subsidized by the government with equal, free access to all. The audience for this document is the array of health care insurance companies. Many people deride such a notion as a harbinger of socialism, which in
Universal Health Care - Literature Review Universal Health Care Universal health care is a hot-button topic for many people, especially since "Obamacare" was passed into law. However, there has been some discussion of a health care bill of some kind for the United States for many years before President Obama took office. The debate is nothing new, but there are two sides to the issue - both of which are very significant
This drug is far more available in the U.S. Others complain about waiting lists for specialists or refusals by their GPs to see much-needed specialists. Specialists in fields of practice such as mental health and dentistry are often scarce, in certain areas of the country. And because of lower tax revenues due to the recession and rising costs due to the aging of the population, the NHS has placed
Some believe that a universal healthcare system would provide fewer incentives for doctors, who would be less likely to perform at their best. Doctors who are not paid based on their quality may be more likely to perform at a lower quality, some hypothesize. This argument is also used to support the fact that having national health insurance may dissuade those who would be good doctors from going into
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