Health Care: Right or Privilege
Stephen D Ramsey
Soc. 120 introduction to ethics
Instructor Donna Falloon
July 4, 2011

I believe everyone should have a health care plan with good prescription copay. Many people in the United States, like me, have an excellent health care plan. With the economy the way it is, and not much new construction happening, it is almost impossible to work the two-hundred hour per quarter to keep my insurance active. Something has to be done so everyone will be entitled to a decent health care plan. Mandatory insurance is great, but what about the people that can’t afford it. The insurance companies keep raising their rates making it almost impossible to keep decent coverage on yourself and your family for those who have one. I think having insurance is more of a privilege than right to have it. The first of my five resources is The 2009 Obama and McCain debate. “Healthcare was priority number two because that broken healthcare system is bad not only for families, but its making our businesses less completive. Obama talked about giving every American a 5,000 refundable tax credit, and go out and get the health insurance you want, rather than mandates and fines for small businesses. Both Obama and McCain talked about this issue. The Liberty Guardian, by Ron Paul, “With passage of last week’s bill, the American people are now the unhappy recipients of Washington disastrous prescription for healthcare reform, the next step towards universal, single payer healthcare, which many see as a human right. The more government involves itself in medicine, the worse healthcare will get; quality of healthcare will diminish as the system struggles to contain rising cost, while shortages and long waiting times for treatment will become more and more commonplace. If medical care becomes a right then the doctors will be obligated to provide medical care for everyone even people on welfare, and to all-so treat people like me who our laid off, and do not work the quarterly hours to keep their insurance in good standards. I can pay for the insurance in the meantime, but if I am not working I can’t afford it. It does not make since , if I am working , I have great coverage with a great copay on prescription’s .When I am laid off , I cannot afford to pay for the coverage I normally have when I am working. Some new laws need to be made to change the policy’s we have now, in order to protect the working class people and even when they are laid off
Some new bills have been approved by the U.S. senate. With international agreements that all member nations have to fallow these treaties regardless of Act of Parliament or Senate approval, approvals have never stopped treaties, they are implemented regardless. The national law states that these treaties be respected and implemented throughout the nation, and now the United States is the only industrialized country in the world in which their people does not include healthcare as a right. The United States in longevity ranks 18th, in infant mortality it ranks 16th, and in immunizations we rank 67th, as a result of this, it is all about the cost of covering the United States people.
Physicians were able to help treat the general public and the needy people as part of their professionalism long before the government became involved in their campaign against the medical profession, Physicians are not paid today by their fruits of labor like in the past, but instead they are paid by discounted programs, HMO, and public health insurance.
Many Americans are finding it harder to get individual and family health care coverage, and even harder keeping it when they lose their jobs when the company their working at either decides to down size or decide to have their product made overseas at a cheaper wage, or they get laid off like me, because of the pore economy.
The rise of health care is effecting everyone, many working class cannot afford insurance twenty-seven-million working Americans have no insurance for them or their families because of the high cost of their insurance premiums. The United States spends one- hundred- billion on health care for the uninsured each year, I think this is ridicules. Those who cannot afford health care, one point eight of them work in the health care field. Two-million people avoid medical care due to the high cost of treatment. The yearly cost of health insurance premiums is eleven-thousand five-hundred dollars; this is a quarter of the average house hold income. (Smith 2007)
With the cost continuing to rise, Employers of many companies are finding it difficult to provide comprehensive insurance for their employees. Many individuals turn down employer based insurance plans and seek their own coverage through the private insurance market and al-lot if people just go without, because the cost of premiums for the insurance plans is just too high for them.
The health care phenomenon is costing our citizens their health and our country billions of dollars. It is not only the patients that suffer; our doctors are also affected by the ailing health care system and the insurance companies’ ability to set their own terms without consequences. An article found on NPR.org Doctor Rebecca Jaffe who desperately wants to help her patients but feels like she is fighting a losing battle . The insurance companies are calling the shots. They decide who gets treatment and how much, or how little they will be paid for their services. In some cases the doctors are expected to absorb the cost themselves. Jaffe said that there were two occasions that the insurance companies informed her they would pay less for an immunization than it would cost for her to buy the vaccine, let alone administer it to her patents. (Silberner, 2007)
Insurance and the system is flawed, and the people who need critical health care are being denied because they do not have the financial resources to pay for it (Sparling, 2006)
SB840 is a bill that was passed recently in California State legislature. The bill was an attempt at massive health care reform if it became law , it would have changed health care as we know it SB 840 is made to be like the single prayer approach to health care that has been adopted by almost every developed country in the world(One Care Now, 2007). The plan is the first of its kind and would have been a great value to everyone in the United States. The goal was to provide health insurance for every single California resident including some six point five- million people currently without insurance (Center for Policy Analysis,2006).
Individual mandates, or personal mandates are laws that would have passed stating that all Americans are required to have health insurance. This is a similar to the approach taken when the law that says that everyone must have car insurance was mad a law (One Care Now, 2007). What is the government going to do, fine everybody when they do not have health care? There is al-lot of people that will be fined, and be in debt to govern meant.
Health care is it a right or a privilege? The more I search for information, I get more disgusted with the situation we as hard working Americans, have to go through. We as a free nation should have the choice to have insurance or not, and it should be based on how much an individual makes, for how much they have to pay for descent coverage. I think the government, should keep their noses out of this, and let the people make their own choice.
The goal is to provide people with choices in individual coverage, so they would no longer be dependent on employer based care which has been the main source of health care since it was developed after World War II (Fuchs, 2005). The shift from this type of coverage is due to the mounting cost and the need for companies to have the ability to compete on a global level. U S companies can just no longer afford to absorb the cost (Fuchs, 2005). People would be forced to assume much more responsibility and financial risk for their health care. The hope is that people will be more responsible when making decisions on what health care services they require (Scott 2006).
In closing I believe everyone should have a health care plan with good prescription copay. Many people in the United States, like me, have an excellent health care plan. With the economy the way it is, and not much new construction happening, it is almost impossible to work the two-hundred hour per quarter to keep my insurance active. Something has to be done so everyone will be entitled to a decent health care plan. Mandatory insurance is great, but what about the people that can’t afford it. The insurance companies keep raising their rates making it almost impossible to keep decent coverage on yourself and your family for those who have one. I think having insurance is more of a privilege than right to have it.

Reference page
WWW.examiner.com/us-headlines-in-art... July20, 2009
Center for Policy Analysis (2006). California legislature passes universal care coverage single payer bill, governor announces veto. Retrieved May 16, 2007, fromhttp://www.centerforpolicyanalysis.org
Fuchs, V. &Emanuel E. (2005, November- December). Health care reform: why? What? When? What it might take to effect comprehensive change. Health affairs, 24(6), 1399-1414. Retrieved May 28, 2007 from http://ebcohost.com www.hubpages.com/hub/is-healthcare-a.(2009). www.wsj.com/2008/10/08...
One Care Now. (2007). Senate bill 840. Retrieved May 16, 2007, from http://www.onecarenow.org
Silberner, J. (2007 March). Doctors shoulder mounting insurance burdens, NPR. Retrieved May 21, 2007, from://www.npr.org
Scott, J. (2006 March). Taking “ownership” of health care are Americans willing to assume the risks? In Health Financial Management, 50(3) 40-41, Retrieved May 29, 2007 from http://www.ebscohost.com
Sperling, k. (2006, winter). The employer’s role in reforming the US health care system, in Journal of applied corporate finance, 18(1). Retrieved May 29, 2007 from://www.ebscbhost.comSmith, F. (July 2007). How Bad Does the Health-Care Crisis Have to Get? Redbook, 209(1), 166-176. Retrieved July 1, 2007, from Master FILE Premier database.