Blog2- Is Healthcare a Right or Privilege?

Being insured most of my life has really shielded my view of what it is like to be unable to have access to healthcare institutions and medication when I need it. Until a few years ago, I never realized how much we pay for this privilege if I should even call it that. How can something be considered a privilege when you are paying and working for it? Without the people who pay for it, healthcare in essence would not exist and without good healthcare, the peoples health would decline over the years and they soon would not exist. It's a circle that must have a balance. I know that some people say that universal healthcare is going to make our healthcare system jam up and create a low end health system. But those people are like me, insured and secure.

I recently found out one of my cousins in Iran could not come to the US (because of money) to get treatment for a rare skin disorder and that the Iranian healthcare did not have the medical necessities he needed to be treated. The point is, there are people like that here that need treatment and they too cannot access it because a lack of healthcare or money. All I could think about was how this boy was just 3 years old. He cannot help what was happening to him nor could he do anything about it. If we allow healthcare to be a privilege and not a right we are saying that this kind of treatment is acceptable. I agree that I do not want to pay for other people's healthcare in the sense that they do nothing and get it for free while I work hard to pay for theirs and mine, because lets face it... there are people like that all over the world. But if I had to choose what is best for  us all, I would say that healthcare is a right and with the idea that more education and awareness can help reduce health problems the addition of universal healthcare is a good step in the right direction. This may put a slightly bigger dent in our paychecks but I feel as though healthcare is a right and no citizen should ever have to be turned down. A small part of me worries about the people who would take advantage of this and live off of our taxed paychecks but a bigger part of me worries about the men, women, and children who have no where to go and may have lost a job, spouse, or some other determinant that causes them to not seek out proper healthcare. We have to start somewhere and if this does not work, at least we know we tried to make a difference and that if anything we can learn from out mistakes. We need to take a step forward even if it means we do not all agree, we have to make a change and unless there is a better idea, this is definitely where we should start.



Until next week,

Sara Abbasi