Universal Healthcare Essay

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Universal healthcare is a political policy based on the premises of universal human rights, fairness, justice, and equity. The United States was also founded on ethical principles like justice and equity. Therefore, programs like Obamacare that promote universal healthcare are essential for upholding the premises of the Constitution. Obamacare was in some ways a stepping-stone from the completely privatized healthcare insurance system that prevails towards a universal healthcare model like those practiced in many other countries with high degrees of success. Healthcare, like education, needs to be framed more like a universal human right than as a privilege, and covered under the auspices of government spending.



There are also pragmatic reasons why universal healthcare makes sense for the American economy. According to the World Health Organization, countries that implement universal healthcare reforms have reduced their overall healthcare spending costs; if the United States adopted universal healthcare coverage the country would experience the same reductions in overall healthcare expenditures (World Health Organization, 2018). Thus, universal coverage could potentially reduce bloat and drive down costs, creating a more efficient, cost-effective, and ethical healthcare system in the process. Universal healthcare coverage would increase access to preventative care, thereby reducing the numbers and costs of emergency room visits, and promote a healthier society in general.
A healthier society is a more economically productive society. Moreover, universal coverage would reduce the number of preventable deaths. If healthcare were universal, it would also drive down costs via the law of supply and demand as the result would potentially be more competition for preventative services like screenings (“Should All Americans Have the Right (Be Entitled) to Health Care?”). Therefore, universal healthcare is both an ethical and a pragmatic objective.

Universal healthcare is also a politically expedient policy reform. Although Obamacare is not without its vocal and vehement opponents, Americans have reaped tremendous benefits from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as individuals and collectively as a society in terms of reduced rates of personal bankruptcy cases due to personal health expenditures (World Health Organization, 2018). As a result of the ACA (Obamacare), Americans at all levels of the socioeconomic ladder have access to critical care, and are not denied coverage for essential services. Health outcomes would also be more equitable, contrary to the current situation in which health outcomes for the poor and disenfranchised are consistently worse than they are for those who can….....

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References

“Should All Americans Have the Right (Be Entitled) to Health Care?” ProCon. https://healthcare.procon.org/
United States Constitution.

World Health Organization (2018). Arguing for universal health coverage. http://www.who.int/health_financing/UHC_ENvs_BD.PDF
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