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Maddison Ward

Professor Perkins

Engl-1302.910/Comp II

4 August 2022

Healthcare is Not a Privileg

Take a walk through the United States Medical System. Imagine having a baby in the US

and working full-time for an employer that doesn’t provide insurance coverage to its employees.

Due to this, Medicaid or the healthcare marketplace are your two options because you don’t

make enough for a private health insurance policy. You gure out you make too much to access

Medicaid, but the only available insurance policies on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace are

still hundreds of dollars a month and aren’t even in network with the medical facility you have

established care with. This is a situation many Americans nd themselves in. Due to poverty line

changes with growing in ation, inaccessibility to government assistance for a growing number

of people including those with disabilities, and positive outcomes from all-access systems of

other countries, healthcare in the United States should become more accessible we can make

healthcare a right instead of a privilege

Medicaid guidelines were set up a long time ago with a poverty level in mind to keep the

system running for only those who desperately needed it while ignoring anyone above a certain

line of income. That line has remained close to the same for a long period of time while in ation

has continued to push that poverty line higher and higher. “Although Medicaid is sometimes

described as a program for those with low incomes, seniors and the disabled account for 61

percent of program spending (but are only 23 percent of enrollees).” (Gruber 6) There are few


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groups of citizens that are getting assistance from these government programs and it leaves

behind so many people who are desperately in need of the assistance. The Affordable Care Act

came in 2014 to assist the people who fell just above the line that Medicaid set up. “The

Affordable Care Act created income-based subsidies for the purchase of individuals health

insurance on state or the federal health insurance “marketplaces” for persons with incomes of up

to 400 percent o the federal poverty level.” (Kaestner and Lubotsky 57)

Medical care is becoming increasingly expensive leaving people paying large bills or

getting them reported to credit agencies for non-payment. These bills come even after getting and

maintaining healthcare coverage. This is bringing many citizens to question why they even have

medical coverage in the rst place. The premiums are high, the coverage is small, and the copays

still exist. Not every employer is offering medical coverage which leaves millions uninsured

looking to these systems the government has put in place to assist them. Medicaid isn’t an option

to those who make too much money. The Affordable Care Act Marketplace requires monthly

premiums and offers very poor coverage. Buying into a private insurance policy on your own

comes at a high cost. All of these restrictions cause a dif culty in getting healthcare coverage and

it causes the lack of use of the policies by people who need them because they’re scared of

incurring a bill with poor medical coverage. Those who sit just above the poverty line are

suffering enormous bills along with their monthly premiums that were already dif cult to make.

There is a major healthcare inequality crisis in the United States and until there is equal coverage

and access for all, that inequality will always exist

The system that currently exists in the US strongly overlooks its disabled citizens. If a

caretaker of a disabled individual makes above what the Medicaid system deems as “needy”

enough to gain access to assistance and they don’t receive employer-provided medical coverage,

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they must turn to the Affordable Care Act Marketplace or Social Security Disability next.

Disability can take months if not years to get approved for and its guidelines are strict only truly

providing de nite coverage to those who are severely affected by a disability to the point of not

being able to function in daily life alone at all. This overlooks an entire portion of the disabled

community that could desperately use the assistance, but falls in the “gray area” of the medical

care system in the United States. This gray area consists of people disabled enough to acquire

assistance and to need the medical intervention, but not disabled enough to be completely

debilitating. Disability determination through the Social Security of ce has a very rigid set of

rules and requirements that you must meet to get assistance. “Disability rights activists often

claim that being disabled isn’t something that’s bad for you. Disability is, rather, a natural part of

human diversity— something that should be valued and celebrated, rather than pitied and

ultimately “cured.” (Barnes 88) This ideology isn’t valued by the United States government and

ultimately the disabled community is often left behind by our leaders and our medical care

system. Affordable Care Act offers assistance to those who need care for disabled citizens, but it

limits what they can access. This needs to change to bring the inequality in the country to a place

of rest.

Other countries are able to make medical systems work for all. “In many countries, such

as Australia, Canada, France, and Germany, just to name a few, the government provides

healthcare. These countries are the principal buyers of the inputs (pharmaceuticals, medical

equipment, the wages of healthcare professionals, etc.) in their healthcare market and can

negotiate lower prices for these healthcare inputs. The United States is not one of these

countries.” (Yoe) These other countries are providing care for their citizens and they come at no

cost. There is no “middle man” when it comes to receiving medical equipment and


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pharmaceutical supplies. The government in other countries is able to give their citizens direct

medical care whereas the United States medical system requires the medical supplies to be sold

to private providers and then to the patient through insurance bargaining. The systems in other

countries work to never leave those who need excessive medical care behind and they do a good

job of making sure that those citizens don’t have to carry the nancial burden along with the

medical burden.

The United States uses a “for pro t” style of medical care and they are able to support

this system with each individual either paying for their own health insurance or having an

employer that does. “Health Insurance in the United States is predominantly employment-

based.” (Pellegrini 128) Our health insurance doesn’t mean coverage and everything must be

approved to be paid for even though you may still have a large sum to pay out-of-pocket. The

average American can get by paying small copays for primary care visits, but what happens to

the ones who require more care, hospitalizations, medical supplies, or surgeries? If they have a

good health insurance policy, they’ll still owe their own portion of the bill. If they have poor

medical coverage or none at all, the entire bill could fall on their shoulders. “While political

scientists have explored the linkages between politics, policies, and economic inequality, it is less

clear whether these linkages also exist across other types of inequality concerns.” (Clark and Zhu

240) This is the process in the United States today. You have options for Medicaid, but not if you

fall above the poverty line. It’s a dif cult system to work through

While the United States healthcare system is dif cult for citizens to fund and navigate, it

also provides the most state-of-the-art equipment and opportunities that other government-run

systems can’t provide. People travel to the United States for the best of the best and they get just

that, but only if they’re able and willing to pay a high price. The cancer hospitals and the


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therapies and standard of care the United States can provide are truly unmatched in most other

countries. With this though, medical costs are high. “… The price of medical care in the US is far

outpacing economic growth and the overall rate of in ation.” (Chen 100) Medical care is run like

a business. They’re there to gain your business and make use of the money that your insurance

company will be giving them. Of course, they’re going to have the latest and greatest technology

and amenities because they want your money and they know you’re willing to give it if it means

regaining or maintaining your health. You’re happy to go to an of ce where you know there will

be fancy supplies and TVs on the wall because it’s available and there’s no reason not to use your

insurance to that advantage. It’s all a part of the system that currently exists and getting a higher

class of amenities with your care is a perk bene t

Other countries have healthcare provided by the government and just like any

government agency or service, they can be run down and dif cult to navigate as well. They have

long wait times and poor bedside manner at times. Procedures and visits still have to be approved

and the care you receive isn’t up to the American standard, but it’s also free. This system would

greatly bene t a routine care plan that most people require, but is it working to bene t the

disabled? When approaching this subject, it’s hard to say that a government-run healthcare

system is the better route to go. Diagnosis for rare disorders takes longer, specialist visits and

therapies are waitlisted, and a higher level of research and speci ed knowledge is unattainable.

Therapies need to be approved and they put you on a waitlist even after approval until an open

spot is available. There is no “shopping around” when it comes to healthcare in countries that

provide it as a basic right. The healthcare you get is all you have and there’s no other options

beyond that. While the United States is becoming impossible to get medical care in, it doesn’t

mean the grass is always greener in other countries where the medical coverage is provided by

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tax dollars and it doesn’t mean you’ll receive better or even equal care of that in the United

States

When looking at the healthcare systems globally, there are so many huge differences that

arise that change the lives and the livelihood of the citizens that live in each country. Whether

healthcare is provided and behind the times or medical coverage is expensive and hard to attain

with state-of-the-art equipment, problems in each system are apparent. This boils the United

States’ system down to privilege. Healthcare shouldn’t be a privilege to only those who can

afford it. No matter how out-of-date other systems are, everyone deserves medical care and the

opportunity to live a healthy life. It’s the right of every person born to receive the same standard

of care as people of different economic statuses. The United States medical care system is

unattainable to so many of its own citizens and needs to make healthcare a right instead of a

privilege.

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Resource

Barnes, Elizabeth. “Valuing Disability, Causing Disability.” Ethics, vol. 125, no. 1, 2014, pp. 88

113. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.1086/677021. Accessed 28 Jul. 2022.

Chen, Wen-Yi, et al. “Is the United States in the Middle of a Healthcare Bubble?” The European

Journal of Health Economics, vol. 17, no. 1, 2016, pp. 99–111. JSTOR, http:/

www.jstor.org/stable/24774116. Accessed 28 Jul. 2022.

Gruber, Jonathan. “Delivering Public Health Insurance Through Private Plan Choice in the

United States.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 31, no. 4, 2017, pp. 3–22.

JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44425379. Accessed 28 Jul. 2022.

Kaestner, Robert, and Darren Lubotsky. “Health Insurance and Income Inequality.” The Journal

of Economic Perspectives, vol. 30, no. 2, 2016, pp. 53–77. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/

stable/43783707. Accessed 28 Jul. 2022.

Pellegrini, Lawrence C., et al. “The US Healthcare Workforce and the Labor Market Effect on

Healthcare Spending and Health Outcomes.” International Journal of Health Care

Finance and Economics, vol. 14, no. 2, 2014, pp. 127–41. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/

stable/24571845. Accessed 28 Jul. 2022.


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Yoe, Jonathan. “Would a Medicare-for-All System Lower Healthcare Costs in the United

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26896717. Accessed 28 Jul. 2022.

Zhu, Ling, and Jennifer H. Clark. “‘Rights without Access’: The Political Context of Inequality

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