The Disagreement: Constitutionally, Human Rights, Economic Productivity, and the Moral Obligation
Constitutionally
According to the founding documents of the United States, there is support for a right to health care. When reading the Declaration of Independence it states that all men have “unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” (1) which (according to this side) entails having the health care needed to preserve such life to further the ability of pursuing happiness. In fact, this side suggest that the purpose of the US Constitution, as stated in the Preamble, Is to “promote the general welfare” of the populace. (2) Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has been noted for saying,” as part of efforts to “promote the general welfare,” healthcare is a legitimate function of government.” (3)
Universal Human Right
The right to health care is an internationally recognized human right. December 10, 1948 the US and over 40 other nations signed into place the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document stated that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one’s family, including… Medical care”. (4) Also, in 2005 the US and the other member states of the World Health Organization signed World Health Assembly resolution 58.33, which essentially said that everyone should have equal access to all healthcare services and they should not have to suffer financial hardship when trying to obtain these services. (5) When Lancet took a peer-reviewed study in 2008, “ right-to-health features are not just good management, justice, or humanitarianism, they are obligations under human-rights law.” (6) Both the US and Mexico are the only countries of the 34 members of the the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that do not have universal health care. (7) As of 2013 over half of the world’s countries had a right to health care in their national constitutions. (8)
Economic Productivity
When providing each and every citizens the right to healthcare it is good for the economic productivity. When all people have access to healthcare, the inevitably outcome is that they live healthier lives and miss work less, which will allow them to contribute more to the economy. In March 2012 a study by researchers at the Universities of Colorado and Pennsylvania showed that workers that had health insurance miss on average 4.7 fewer days on work than employees that are without health insurance. (9) Also, according to Institute of Medicine report, the US economy will lose 65-130 billion annually as a result of diminished worker productivity all due to the following: poor health, premature death, all among the uninsured. (10) Also, in January 2014, Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank, stated that all nations should provide a right to healthcare “to help foster economic growth.”
Moral Obligation
Because the United States is a very wealthy country, it is morally obligated to provide health care for all its citizens. One will find that many European countries with a universal right to healthcare. Such countries like: Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, they all have a lower Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita that the US, (11) yet they all provide a right to healthcare for all of their citizens. As of 2012, nearly 50 million people ( roughly 16% of the US population) did not have health insurance (12) and, according to a study in June 2013, even with Obamacare reforms 31 million people will still be uninsured in 2016. (13) The United States spent nearly 9,000 per person on healthcare in 2011, which is over two and a half times more then the average spend by members of OECD. (14) With that level of spending, the US should be able to provide healthcare to everyone.
Also, a right to healthcare is a necessary foundation of a just society. The US already provides “free” public education, public law enforcement, public road maintenance and other services to the public to help promote a just and fair society. Healthcare should be added to this list. According to the late US Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) providing a right to healthcare “goes to the heart of my belief in a just society.” (15) According to Norman Daniels, PhD, Professor of Ethics and Population Health at Harvard University, “healthcare preserves for people the ability to participate in the political, social, and economic life of society. It sustains them as fully participating citizens.”16
1. National Archives, "The Declaration of Independence," archives.gov, July 4, 1776
2. Cornell University Law School Legal Information Insitute, "US Constitution," law.cornell.edu (accessed December 1st 2015)
3. Mark Wheeler, "A Constitutional Right to Health Care: UCLA-Led Study Shows That Many Countries Have It, But Not the US," newsroom.ucla.edu, July 18, 2013
4. Joshua Wright, "Health Care's Unrivaled Job Gains and Where It Matters Most," forbes.com, Oct. 7, 2013
5. World Health Organization (WHO), "The World Health Report 2013: Research for Universal Health Coverage," who.int, 2013
6. Allan Dizioli and Roberto Pinheiro, "Health Insurance as a Productive Factor," tippie.uiowa.edu, Mar. 2012
7. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), "Health at a Glance 2013: OECD Indicators," oecd.org, 2013
8.Mark Wheeler, "A Constitutional Right to Health Care: UCLA-Led Study Shows That Many Countries Have It, But Not the US," newsroom.ucla.edu, July 18, 2013
9. Allan Dizioli and Roberto Pinheiro, "Health Insurance as a Productive Factor," tippie.uiowa.edu, Mar. 2012
10. Board on Health Care Services (HCS) and Institute of Medicine (IOM), "Hidden Costs, Value Lost: Uninsurance in America," nap.edu, 2003
11. The World Bank, "GDP Per Capita (Current US$)," data.worldbank.org (accessed December 1st 2015)
12. United States Census Bureau, "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012," census.gov, Sep. 2013
13.Rachel Nardin, Leah Zallman, Danny McCormick, Steffie Woolhandler, and David Himmelstein, "The Uninsured after Implementation of the Affordable Care Act: A Demographic and Geographic Analysis," healthaffairs.org, June 6, 2013
14. Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), "OECD Health Data 2013," June 27, 2013
15.Ted Kennedy, "Ted Kennedy and Health Care Reform," Newsweek, July 17, 2009
16. Norman Daniels, "Justice, Health, and Healthcare," The American Journal of Bioethics, Spring 2001
