The discourse in healthcare often revolves around one primary question: Is healthcare a right? This question, however, tends to oversimplify the complexity of healthcare and its various implications. So, might it be more appropriate to regard healthcare as a need rather than a right?
A need is something that is necessary or requires action while a right is defined as something morally good or justified. On the other hand, a privilege is an advantage available only to a special group.
Defining healthcare as a right could potentially infringe upon the rights of providers. Rights held by one individual inherently imply a duty on the part of others. For example, if healthcare is considered a right, does it justify placing an undue burden on providers, effectively pushing them into a form of involuntary servitude? Why should the health insurance industry be allowed to hijack the medical profession?
Moreover, rights are naturally limited by resources. Access to long waiting lists is not equivalent to access to healthcare. Also, if healthcare is a right, where do we draw the line? Are elective procedures, such as cosmetic botox treatments, also a right?
Furthermore, an individual’s duty to adopt healthy lifestyles cannot be overlooked. A healthier lifestyle minimizes the imposition on healthcare providers and reduces the strain on healthcare resources. Also, many consumers don’t want to be in risk pools with those engaging in risky behavior or unable to make good lifestyle choices.
Naturally, those who make healthy lifestyle choices don’t want to be paying more in premiums to assist those who don’t make healthy choices. Shockingly, a staggering 1% of the population consumes 30% of annual healthcare expenditures.
Interestingly, over two-thirds of all healthcare delivered consists of generally affordable office-based and outpatient care. The inclusion of routine services in health plans has been identified as a major driver of escalating health plan costs. If consumers paid directly for routine care, more resources could be directed toward the needy and toward addressing major medical conditions.
Health plans for the most part control healthcare pricing, access to care, and delivery of care. Not only does this prescription for care result in the elimination of market forces but it causes the ballooning of medical costs. A price tag for which there is no evidence of improvement in overall health.
In conclusion, rather than labeling healthcare as a right, it might be more productive to approach it from the point of a need but a need that requires balanced responsibility and resource allocation.
Read more: Cost-Transparency Healthcare
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