There
are pros and cons to both sides of the spectrum when it comes to
universal healthcare. There are different factors one may use to vote
for or against. If we look at it without the cost or the efficiency of
it and just look at if it is a human right to have healthcare or be able
to receive healthcare benefits, I believe that it is a right.
My
first reason I believe this is because the health of one person can
have an impact on others, positively or negatively. For example if a
person with healthcare gets the flu, they can go to the doctor and be
told the steps and given the medication to get better again. While a
person who does not have healthcare could get the flu and it could get
others sick. This is just spreading the sickness more and more rather
than being able to catch it and get better before you infect others.
The
second reason i believe it is a human right goes right along with
Redmond when she talks about the mentally ill. I feel very passionately
towards the mental health field which is why I am going into this field.
What many people do not realize is how hard it is to just accept that
you have a mental illness in the first place because of so many stigmas
that go along with them, let alone get treatment for it when you do have
the resources to do so. Also the resources do not always help the
situation. For example, the healthcare I am under with my mother's
insurance only covers 2-3 psychologist appointments a year and you can
only go to a certain list of counselors. Now while i do not have a
serious mental illness, if someone is going through something troubling
and if they don't have healthcare it will only get worse. This citizens
can turn into criminals, murderers etc. By giving every person the right
to health care, especially mental illness, i truly believe it will help
our society.
While I do understand others who agree with Peikoff
and they believe that you should only be able to have healthcare if you
can pay for it or earn it I do not believe that every person who says
it is thinking about how our healthcare works now. I disagree with it
because i know how much college students use the healthcare provided by
their parents jobs to get them through until they can get a job and can
afford it on their own. For example for someone who needs constant
treatment for say juvenile diabetes, if they did not have healthcare
they wouldn't be able to stay healthy let alone alive because they rely
on their insulin and their medication to keep their bodies going.Think
about if it was you who wasn't able to afford it, what side would you be
on then?
Whether is be for the common cold, a mild or serious
mental illness, or having a life threatening disease without healthcare
these people will lose their lives over something that should be given
to everyone. They say "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are
our natural rights, being given life is one thing, but being given the
opportunity to live a healthy life is just as important.
hello Cory,
ReplyDeleteExcellent blog. I really liked how you included arguments from both sides, and still picked one side or the other.I also liked the insight about health care for all will protect us from things like the flu. The only suggestion I have is maybe to also include something about your experiences like the Baths of Caracalla. Or maybe include something from your experiences with Italians.
Keep up the great work.
The flu is contagious with or without medicine in your system, so even if you go to the doctor, you still can get other people sick one day before symptoms even start, and then for another seven days after one is diagnosed. So, it really wouldn't matter if they went to the doctor or not.
ReplyDeleteOn the point of mental illnesses, this is a hard question to answer. Unfortunately, I must say that the rights of others, including paying for various things and receiving "free" care with taxes imposed the citizens, must always trump any other argument. No system is perfect for everybody's needs, but being communistic and having everyone pay for everyone else and being entitled to free things simply isn't the best for the freedom we have in this country. We are all dealt different hands in life and some struggle more or less than everyone else. To try to even everyone out is not fair to anybody.