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Right- A moral or legal entitlement to have or obtain something or to act in a certain way
Privilege- A special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person, or group of people
General: All residents are required to purchase health insurance from private insurers, insurers may be for profit but all insurance is tightly regulated federally, all must be eligible regardless of pre-existing conditions. The government provides larger subsidies to insurers that cover sicker patients and provides tax credits to low income families
Covers: General practitioners, hospitals, maternity care, lab tests and medicines.
Excludes: Pts. choose their plan but only some offer choice of physician
Financing: 6.5% of income, also pay a flat rate premium which is the same for everyone who has the same plan, lower incomes receive a healthcare allowance
American Medical Student Association
"At its root, the lack of health care for all in America is fundamentally a moral issue. The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not have some form of universal health care (defined as a basic guarantee of health care to all of its citizens). While other countries have declared health care to be a basic right, the United States treats health care as a privilege, only available to those who can afford it.
Americans purport to believe in equal opportunity. Yet, in the current situation, those who do not have health care are at risk for financial ruin and poorer health, both of which disadvantage them in society and thereby do not give them equal opportunity.
The Declaration of Independence states there are certain 'inalienable rights', including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If Americans believe in an inalienable right to life, how can we tolerate a system that denies people lifesaving medications and treatments? Similarly, if Americans believe in an inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness, how can we allow millions of dreams to be smashed by the financial and physical consequences of uninsurance?"
Individual Mandate- If an individual can afford to purchase private health insurance but does not, they face a stiff penalty
What constitutes affordable?
Unaffordable= Lowest cost plan available is >8.13% of total household income, accounting for any tax credits you may receive
Public:
Medicaid- all ages, meet income requirements
Medicare- all incomes, meet age requirements
Medicaid Gap- Federal subsidies are available to help people pay for insurance. Begins at the federal poverty line
Private:
Dennis Kucinich, MA, US Representative (D-OH)
Employer sponsored- Plans offered and through your employer
For those under the federal poverty line, the ACA has expanded medicaid eligibility. Some states however have decided against expanding the system
Individual plans- Private Plans purchased by an individual
Does this system treat health care as a Right or as a Privilege?
"The hour has arrived to begin anew the Civil Rights Movement, this time for Health Care for All...
The Preamble to the United States Constitution and Article One, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution both describe an originating purpose of our United States: to promote the general welfare. Health care is a legitimate function of our government. Health care is a basic right in a Democratic society. It is no more a privilege based on ability to pay than is the right to vote, which was once accorded only to property owners."
Current Perspectives
Rand Paul
"With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have to realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses.
"Basically, once you imply a belief in a right to someone’s services, do you have a right to plumbing? Do you have a right to water? Do you have right to food? You’re basically saying you believe in slavery. You’re saying you believe in taking and extracting from another person. Our founding documents were very clear about this. You have a right to pursue happiness but there’s no guarantee of physical comfort. There’s no guarantee of concrete items. In order to give something concrete, you have to take it from someone. So there’s an implied threat of force.
"If I’m a physician in your community and you say you have a right to health care, do you have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That’s ultimately what the right to free health care would be. If you believe in a right to health care, you’re believing in basically the use of force to conscript someone to do your bidding."
Health care abroad?
Canada
General: Publicly funded and uses private providers, private insurance may only be used for coverage gaps and may not cover things covered by the public plan (Medicare)
Covers: Medically necessary hospital/physician services
Excludes: Dental care, out-patient prescription drugs and rehabilitation services.
Healthcare Changes Looming
Financing: Federal and Province income taxes, payroll tax and sales tax
Before creating a new policy for Healthcare in the US we must first answer one basic question
Is Health Care a Right or a Privilege?
"Morally, you have no right to demand medical care of me. I may recognize your necessity and offer charity; my friends and I may choose to band together and fund your medical care. But your necessity does not change the basic math: Medical care is a service and a good provided by a third party...
[M]edical care is a commodity, and treating it otherwise is foolhardy. To make a commodity cheaper and better, two elements are necessary: profit incentive and freedom of labor. The government destroys both of these elements in the health-care industry. It decides medical reimbursement rates for millions of Americans, particularly poor Americans; this, in turn, creates an incentive for doctors not to take government-sponsored health insurance...
So, what's the solution for poor people? Not to declare medical care a 'right,' and certainly not to dismiss reliance on the market as perverse cruelty. Markets are the solution in medical care, just as they are in virtually every other area. Treating medical care as a commodity means temporary shortages, and it means that some people will not get everything we would wish them to have. But that's also true of government-sponsored medical care, as the most honest advocates will admit. And whereas government-sponsored medical care requires a top-down approach that violates individual liberties, generates overdemand, and quashes supply, markets prize individual liberties, reduce demand (you generally demand less of what you must pay for), and heighten supply through profit incentive."
To help each of you answer this question we will look at some current perspectives/quotes from prominent individuals and will discuss their validity