{"id":3432,"date":"2021-12-11T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2021-12-11T09:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthdrum.com\/blog\/?p=3432"},"modified":"2024-02-20T14:53:26","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T14:53:26","slug":"is-healthcare-a-right-or-a-privilege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthdrum.com\/blog\/is-healthcare-a-right-or-a-privilege\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Healthcare a Right or a Privilege?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

At first blush, it would seem correct that healthcare is a right. However, on reflection it is clearly not an easy answer. Let\u2019s examine.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is healthcare?<\/b><\/p>\n

Healthcare is a combination of two issues, health and care.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Health is a state of being free from illness or injury.<\/span><\/p>\n

Care is the attention or action towards a situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Healthcare then, is the care, attention and or, actions towards remaining free from illness or injury. A process that can be administered through preventive care, self care and or, by someone providing health-related services.<\/span><\/p>\n

I<\/span>s healthcare a right, a privilege or both?<\/b><\/p>\n

Rights are legal, social or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement whereas a privilege is something that is earned. So is healthcare a right or a privilege? This question simply opens doors to many more questions and scenarios. For example, it is easy to see the moral obligation of treating a child with leukemia whose solo mother is vulnerable and without means. But, how do you handle those who make poor lifestyle choices and then demand treatment for their hypertension and diabetes. Is that a right or should that be a privilege? Or, what do you do with someone who demands an unnecessary evaluation such as an MRI for the flu or, demands a treatment such as a transplant or kidney dialysis when these choices would be considered unreasonable by the majority of experts providing that care? What is reasonable and unreasonable and what are minimum or basic healthcare rights?<\/span><\/p>\n

Is basic healthcare a right?<\/b><\/p>\n

What is basic healthcare? Is it anything and everything in healthcare? Or, is it just \u201cgeneral\u201d health without cosmetics, infertility or weight-loss care needs? What are the exact limits of general or basic healthcare? How is necessity and reasonableness defined? Is the government morally obligated (through taxation) to do all within its means to ensure that medically necessary care is accessible and affordable to all? Or, will it simply tax its citizens and let a third party like the insurance industry profit from the control of healthcare delivery? What is medically necessary care and how is affordability defined?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Healthcare rights imply a duty on the part of others.<\/b><\/p>\n

The rights of one individual necessarily imply a duty on the part of others. Do the rights of a patient trump the rights of a physician? Do patients have the right to expect their physician to be available and work for them in servitude? And, is this right and servitude expected of all the other players in the healthcare arena like the drug industry, imaging centers, laboratories, bio-tech, hospitals, outpatient centers and so on or, just from physicians? Does the patient bear any responsibility for his or her actions?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why is healthcare an insurance industry monopoly?<\/b><\/p>\n

Why is the insurance industry the dominating force in healthcare?<\/span><\/p>\n