Healthcare: Right or Privilege, another look.
I have raised the question on my own blog site Healthcare Today whether healthcare itself is a privilege or a right; citizenship and immigration issues aside. After reviewing the bill of rights I was unable to determine if there was any clear mention of such related topics and I wasn’t able to find any reference. Clearly the founders had many other issues of more importance on their plates at the time. The only small mention that perhaps one could tie into healthcare was from the Declaration of Independence:
…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…
; hardly a strong case for the right of healthcare for all.
Does the fact that no specific language alludes to or otherwise mentions healthcare as a right in our most prized government documents mean that it is a privilege? In today’s world with free enterprise and market share and competitive business practices, it would seem that healthcare like any other commodity is available to those that able to afford such; and it [healthcare] would then be deemed a privilege.
The reality though is that healthcare is available to all regardless of their ability to pay for such services – or at least at certain levels. Acute care nonprofit hospitals have been providing “fee care” to the medically indigent for years as part of their requirements to maintain their non-profit tax status. Over time the mounting debt associated with unreimbursed care has created significant fiscal hardships within the industry.
Private practice providers who are generally for profit shun the medically indigent for obvious reasons and only provide access and care to those who are privileged enough to be able to afford medical care through insurance plans and out of pocket co-payments. These people typically have better care because of the access availability.
Patients that do not have insurance or are not affluent enough to pay for healthcare typically avoid access to care points until their health condition is so acute they are unable to tolerate the condition further and then seek care where ever they can – usually the local emergency department.
Part of the irony with respect to healthcare is the advertising that healthcare facilities employ to woo prospective patients to their doors. Web sites of transparency, newly constructed buildings of medicine for women’s health, orthopedics, and other specialties are abound. News papers, television, and the internet are full of medical ads. Promises of compassion, high quality care, personalized services, and other such lures fill our senses. Well the target audience isn’t your average middleclass employee who works at a book store and doesn’t have insurance. The audience is the privileged medically solvent.
My original post on Healthcare Today suggested that if we as a country can decide if healthcare is a right or a privilege first, the current problems of cost, access, reimbursement, and other complex issues could be more easily decided. So, is healthcare a right or a privilege?
It should be a right, but we all know it is not.
About the Author
Mike Pringle is the author of Healthcare Today where he offers commentary and insight regarding today’s healthcare issues. Additionally he provides regular commentary for Red Scrubs and editorial content for Future Healthcare. He has over 20 years of nursing experience working both domestically and internationally. Mike has a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and a Masters Degree in Public Administration with a Healthcare emphasis. He specializes in both Emergency and Critical Care Nursing. He currently works at Falmouth Hospital as a Shift Manager for the emergency department.
Dan responds:
Posted: July 1st, 2008 at 3:46 pm →
Most of the world views health care as a societal right. We are an exception. Speaking of rights, or lack of rights, we have the most people behind bars than any other location in the world. Russia is number two.