Should health insurance be provided to all people and run by the government?
Dawson Soogrim
HFN11X
Dawson Soogrim
Mrs.Bacchus
HFN11X
13 october 2017
Figuring out how Americans should receive healthcare has always been a controversial debate within Congress and amongst the people. The United States is one of the few developed nations that does not have a universal healthcare system and also spends more of its GDP on healthcare than any other OECD country. Rather than having a single payer national health insurance system, majority of U.S healthcare is funded and provided by private sector businesses. Even though both sides of the aisle believe reform is necessary, Liberals and Conservatives have constantly argued about how it should be financed and who should be in charge of it. Democrats have supported a more centralized system that is controlled and funded by the government and believe that healthcare is an individual right of every citizen. While Republicans believe government funding would be too expensive and should be left to private health insurances because people deserve the right to choice. Every American should be provided with healthcare by the government because it is a fundamental human right and will ultimately lead to greater improvement in quality of life within the United States.
1. Historical Context & Background:
One of the main arguments involving healthcare has always been about whether or not it should be the government's responsibility to commit itself to social welfare. It became noticeable after the progressive era, that the quality of medical care in America was quite poor, while standards were much higher in European countries. The American Medical Association committee issued a report during the great depression stating that Americans who have no reliable medical care were as deprived as those who lacked adequate food and shelter (Coombs 26).
Action to this was taken when President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Federal Emergency Relief Administration had recognized medical care as a basic human right by 1933. It is then declared that the conservation and maintenance of public health is a primary function of our government (Coombs 29). This new deal program would create the foundation for future publicly funded healthcare programs provided by the government (32). During the Johnson presidency, further implementation of medical care programs were done when the social security amendments of 1965 was enacted which created Medicaid and Medicare. This important legislation provided federal health insurance to the elderly and poor families. It helped expand coverage for Americans by reducing the barriers of high expenses and overall increased the life expectancy. Over the decades however, the cost of medical care continued to rise and has become a huge burden to Americans that had to be dealt with (Rosenthal 5). The most recent major legislation that has been passed to combat this is the Affordable Care Act (also known...
