Universal Healthcare Behavior

Zutshi 1

ENC 1101

20 September 2014

Universal Healthcare: America's Savior?

A long debated hot topic, the implementation of Universal Healthcare within the United States is growing in importance as the currently administered health care system is one of the worst out of all developed, and even some under-developed countries. Many countries ensure healthcare to their citizens as a basic right, while in the United States there are approximately 45 million uninsured, and many more under-insured. Those who advocate and oppose such an implementation provide great reasons as to why it would be a great success or an utter failure. The ultimate question however, still is, will the benefit exceed the consequences. While many believe the United

"Fractured Healthcare." Family & Community Health 26.3 (2007): 246. JBS. The John Birch Society. Web. 15 Sept. 2014.

Dr. Jane Orient provides a multitude of reasons as to why Universal Healthcare would ultimately lead to the demise of the United States. For example, she believes such an implementation would not result in treatment equality. Orient says that Universal healthcare is just another way of saying “uniform healthcare”, where the sick would not be optimally taken care of. Although expenses may be reduced, the reason for it is due to restricting the demographics of people who they will provide care to; focusing mainly on the healthy and disregarding those with fatal illnesses, such as cancer. Orient uses another
Zutshi 5
Human Right issue to further prove how such an implementation would result in an utter failure. She provides us with the government granting its citizens to right of education. As a result, she states that “the performance of American students is nearly the worst in the industrialized world. With SAT scores plunging so much that that the test was revised to bring the scores back up.” According to Orient, the United States system is progressing more towards a fascist system in medical realm. While she agrees that the system needs reform, she disagrees with the process that many believe is necessary to fix the problem. Dr. Orient explains how she concludes the only way to go about changing the system is to take steps towards a truly competitive,

Every person would have access to a family physician, specialists, surgical services, hospitalization, rehab, prescription medications, as well as other basic necessities. The lower socioeconomic class of people are those who are the most affected by being uninsured. Rashford believes it is our civic duty as Americans to ensure that these underprivileged citizens are to be insured as they play a pivotal role in our society. An interesting and quite frankly, surprising statistic provided by Orient is the fact that from the year 2000-2003 the number of uninsured Americans rose from 1.4 million to 45 million. Orient provides in the article, the result of a study conducted in Nova Scotia whose purpose was to determine if the implementation of a Universal Healthcare system would reduce discrepancies in healthcare present within the United States. According to conclusions based upon this study, the researcher did find that universal coverage improved access to healthcare for individuals within the lower socioeconomic