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Why Healthcare is a Right.

A right to healthcare coverage is an important subject for all Americans. Millions of Americans are not covered by health insurance plans, many cannot afford to purchase health insurance, and many employers do not offer such coverage due to high costs. The number of uninsured Americans continues to grow. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2004), between 2000 and 2003, the number of Americans without health insurance rose by 1.4 million to 45 million (Cameron S. 2014). America’s decision to treat health care as a privilege is the 45 million Americans who lack insurance. Some can say it is because many are not employed and just want to get free treatment, but that’s not the case. In contrast to prevailing stereotypes, 80% of the uninsured are hardworking Americans who are employed or come from working families. (Iltanen S. 2012). Others believe that healthcare is a privilege provided solely at the discretion of an employer and a government subsidized insurance plan for the wealthy but healthcare programs should be regulated to be transparent and available for everyone regardless of work or financial situations in order to easily reduce death cases, costs, and increase productivity at large.

The right to healthcare and its benefits outweighs the criticism that befalls it. First of all, the right to healthcare can save lives. With insurance, everyone will be able to have access to medication and treatment of contagious infections thus cutting down the rate of contamination which in turn will reduce cases of deaths (Working for Justice in Health-care, p. 1). Access to drugs/medicine will be adequate to many thus lowering the probability of deaths due to inadequate medication supply. Some can say that the primary purpose of medicine is not to prevent death, but it all depends on the argument point of view. It’s understood that everyone dies sooner or later but someone’s life can be prolonged with proper treatment and care. Proper treatment...