What America Needs

Currently, more than 45 million Americans lack any form of health insurance, and millions more have insurance but do not have the financial protection from health care costs (Kao-Ping Chua). Universal health care should be in the United States because no individual should go without adequate health care.It would be good for the U.S economically, financially, and socially. This is what America needs. Socially, the U.S would be better off with Universal health care because it would assist to close the gap between the rich and the poor. Individuals would get the same quality of health care no matter what their income or class status is. An alternative perspective is that good health and secure access to health care are key to a person’s ability to work and meet responsibilities of others. Society has a strong role in every individual and family being able to flourish, so it makes sense to find agreeable ways to avoid the worries and risks that come from bad health or an inability to pay for needed care. The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not have some form of universal health care. While other countries have declared health care to be a basic right, the United States treats health care as a privilege, only available to those who can afford it (Kao-Ping Chua). It should be treated as a basic right, not a privilege.
Universal health care will also further economic security and opportunity because major illness and disability can hit a family’s budget hard, not only to pay for care but also because work-time may be lost. Universal health care prevents the risk of economic meltdown, because everyone contributes during times of health as well as illness. The financial cost would be smoothed out and no individual or family faces bankruptcy. It also boosts the economic security because every indivdual has the burden of paying taxes, and extra costs don’t get shifted to unlucky businesses or families. In periods of economic slowdown, health care is still there-and the health industry keeps generating areas for work and income (Dr. Behzad, Mohit). Universal health care would start to make society a little more economically equal because more and more people would have an equal opportunity to work and flourish. This type of health care system would financially help the U.S because what we have now is top-down corporate control of health care. Insurers, sellers of expensive equipment, hospital executives, labs, home-health-care services and others prosper by exploiting the chaos in our health care system (Froma Harrop). Right now, the only businesses that prosper the most are health insurance companies etc. Other businesses have to provide health insurance to most or all of their workers, which takes a toll on their budgets. The percentage of employers offering health insurance dropped from 69% in 2000 to 60% in 2005 (Kao-Ping Chua). Even if employers are able to provide health insurance benefits, the trend is towards providing high-deductible insurance that covers an ever-shrinking percentage of health care costs (Julia Prah Ruger). If there was universal health care, businesses would not have to offer/ provide health care. Therefore, creating less debt and saving money. Although there are positive benefits to the financial perspective of universal health care, there are also individuals who would disagree with this side. The universal health care would not truly be free because the government would raise taxes or make