490 Week One

Is health care a right or a privilege? This a question that never crossed my mind until a began this class.  This is because growing up I never had to worry about health insurance because I have always been insured under my mom.  After only having one class discussion, I see that this simple question is very controversial. 

I constantly go back and forth between which side I would take. If health care were a privilege, then odds are the low income portion of America would not have health care, but everybody above them would. Is that fair? Is that justice? Is that what our founding fathers would approve? Is this true freedom? To me, the answer is easy; absolutely not. 

Gary Dorrien writes in a chapter of his book, Health Care Fix, that health care should be treated as a right. Dorrien suggests a "single-payer system," which basically means health care for everyone.  This plan, however, would exterminate all private insurance companies; but would grant health care coverage to the 45 million Americans that currently do not have health insurance. He says that "health care is a fundamental human right that should be available to all people", and I couldn't agree more.

If health care was a right, then every American citizen would have health care. I think this is the way to go about health care. Now, I don't think that everyone will have the same form of health care, but I believe as Americans, as a free country, we all deserve some form of health care.  I am by no means an expert on health care, nor am I pretending to be, but the form of health care one should have should be based on one's income; the poor would have the basic and the wealthy will have full coverage. But hey who am I? Some 19 year old kid in college; however, this is my opinion and I am willing to stand up for it.