Issues of Universal Health Care in America

What differentiates who deserves health care and who does not? Impoverished Americans are losing their lives from treatable diseases and they are living in agony when there is medication to lessen the pain. Common middle-class Americans are facing financial instability from medical bills from fighting cancer and other chronic conditions are filing for bankruptcy due to extensive medical expenses. To combat exponentially growing problems like these, universal health care has been suggested. Through universal health care, every American, despite their financial status can receive medical care. Universal health care should be implemented in the United States policy because it would help many Americans who struggle to pay for health insurance and provide it for those who do not have it.

Americans in poverty do not have money to pay for basic health insurance, and it is leading to their suffering of illnesses and their avoidable demise. According to the Institute of Medicine, 44,789 Americans die each year due to their lack of insurance (Wilper). Due to their lower financial status and inability to pay for health care, Americans with low incomes die from illnesses that could have been easily treated by medical professionals. Contrastingly, a man in the upper class can “expect to live 5.8 years longer” than his lower-class counterparts, because his financial status allows him to afford sufficient health care (Khullar). As of today, whether an American will live or die to a treatable condition is based solely on their income, and their ability to afford healthcare, and therefore universal healthcare policy is a necessity for the United States. Those against the proposal of universal health care in the United States government, argue that those who work hard to make a living should not have to pay for another person’s healthcare. Though it may seem that impoverished Americans are unemployed and lazy, many are hardworking Americans who are not provided with the opportunities to make a higher wage. An American’s inability to pay for their health care should not deem them as unworthy of treatment that could save his or her life. Universal health care could not only benefit impoverished Americans with low incomes, but it could also save their lives.

Ironically, Americans working low-paying jobs need health insurance more than the wealthy do due to their working environment. Americans in poverty work in environments that likely cause workers to contract “illness and disability” because of unsanitary conditions and “unsafe sources of drinking water” (Murray). The low-income occupations that expose workers to these conditions do not pay enough for the worker to pay for health insurance. Unlike other full-time jobs with dangerous environments, low-income jobs filled by Americans in poverty most likely do not provide insurance for their workers. With universal health care, people working under dangerous conditions can be treated of illnesses and disabilities contracted in their work environment.

The unsafe jobs which Americans work not only need to be done for the basic well-being of society, but it is the last option for most Americans in the lower class. Several simple occupations are safe and clean for people to work in, but artificial intelligence is being invented to fulfill these occupations. Artificial intelligence is obtaining jobs that require no education or experience that could be fulfilled by workers in unsafe conditions (Drum). Jobs that are the safest to work and executed over the internet or phone are controlled by artificial intelligence, so workers with no education and experience are forced to work jobs where they are exposed to dangerous elements. Since Americans are left with little to no options besides working in unsafe conditions, they should have the right to access health insurance through the universal health care policy.

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Not only are those in poverty and low-income Americans disadvantaged with their health through their work environments, but they are also disadvantaged with the cheap food made available to them. The cheapest food in America is extremely unhealthy, and it can cause significant damage to the human body. Considering fast and unhealthy food is the cheapest food offered to Americans, it is the diet of many people with lower incomes and those in poverty. Cheap, profusely abundant food “leads to higher levels of obesity and chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease” (Quick). With unhealthy foods being the option for many Americans with financial instability, they are more at risk of developing diseases and obesity. Diseases contracted from obesity in financially troubled Americans will go untreated because they do not have a source of affordable health care. The health care that these Americans desperately need can provide them with medications to treat their conditions as well as educate them on the dangers of unhealthy eating habits and ways to change their diet. Universal health care will not only make treatment available to those with obesity and chronic diseases due to unhealthy eating habits, but they can also receive education on healthier food choices.

Americans in the middle, working, and lower class would all benefit from universal healthcare policies being implemented in the United States government. The costs of health care are the paramount financial problem American families endure, specifically, 17% of American families describe this to be their main financial problem (Dugan). Most American families a part of the middle class establish that health care costs affect their financial stability the most. With the implementation of a program like universal health care in the United States government, there would be substantial benefits brought to more than half of the people in the United States.

Universal health care can also prevent families and individuals from going into bankruptcy after the billing of medical expenses. Families and individuals without the money to pay expensive medical bills must take out loans to pay them. Loans taken out by families and individuals will eventually lead them to go into bankruptcy from the interest of the loans used to pay the accumulating medical bills (Debt). With universal health care in place, Americans experiencing misfortune with their health would not go through financial instability because of their growing medical debt. The implementation of universal health care could improve the quality of life for many Americans by alleviating unavoidable debt from medical bills.

The United States is one of the richest countries on Earth, so universal health care is a program the government should be able to afford. Countries like Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom have a much lower gross domestic product rate than the United States (Worldbank). Though there is not as much money to budget on, countries like Denmark and the United Kingdom, which have a lower GDP than the United States, can provide their citizens with health care. If the United States were to reevaluate the national budget, universal health care is a policy the United States is fully capable to finance.

Access to health care is something every person in the United States should have. As a developed country with multiple sources of health care in every city, there should not be a single person without a place to receive health care that he or she can use without payment. Whether they can afford health care or not, it is a right that every human should have. Without a universal health care policy in place, those who do not have health care available to them due to financial instability are dying of treatable diseases. Citizens fighting cancer and chronic illnesses are going into bankruptcy due to their extensive medical bills. Whether a person is extremely poor or the wealthiest in the country, they should both get an equal chance to live healthily. Universal health care is a policy that needs to be implemented into the United States government to provide all citizens the chance for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.