Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance: Who Should Be Covered?

Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance:

Who should be covered?

Tabitha Metz

ENGL102B006 Win 11

Katherine P Oneil

29 January 2011

Who should be entitled to Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance?

No matter what a person's medical history, race, where they live, or how much money they have; everyone should be entitled to affordable medical, dental, and vision insurance, or in other words Health insurance. The cost of healthcare has become unaffordable to all citizens, including the working citizens. (Right To Health Care) Affordable Health Insurance is not just a problem in the medical sense, but it has contributed largely in bankruptcies in the US. (David U. Himmelstein) 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies filed in the US in the year of 2007 were related to medical expenses, and 78 percent of those medical bankruptcies were filed by people who had health coverage. (David U. Himmelstein) The cost of bad health and shorter life spans of Americans suffering from uninsurance amounts to $65-130 billion dollars annually. (Right To Health Care) 92 percent of all the medical debtors had medical debts of at least five thousand dollars or ten percent of pretax family income. (David U. Himmelstein)

The US is one of the few, and maybe the only, developed nation in the world that does not guarantee health coverage for its people, 46.3 million US citizens did not have health coverage in the year of 2008. (Right To Health Care) Health care is needed for people to live their lives, to the fullest extent; and the Declaration of Independence states, "All men have the unalienable right to life", and having health care is needed to preserve these lives. (Right To Health Care) The preamble of the US Constitution states that its purpose is to promote the general welfare; and all Citizens should have the right to affordable health care, to promote their general welfare. (Right To Health Care)

Health care should be a human right to all citizens and as J.S. Blair said, "Everyone needs some level of health insurance, it is not a matter of if you need it, it is when you need it." (Blair) The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, in article 25.1, that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one's family, including food, housing, and medical care and necessary social services. (Leary) All US citizens should have the right to health care as do citizens of other nations. (Right To Health Care) Ensuring that all Americans have the right to affordable health care will decrease health care costs allowing people to receive regular and preventive medical care, instead of waiting until they are chronically ill to seek treatment, when medical costs are much more expensive. (Right To Health Care)

Providing all citizens the right to health care is good for economic productivity; and when people have access to health care, they live healthier and longer lives, allowing them to contribute to society for a longer period of time. (Right To Health Care) Lacking health care can lead to more health problems, such as, people suffering from anxiety, depression, sickness, and stress, and other symptoms that affect not only one individual, but their families and their communities. (Right To Health Care)The guarantee of the right to health care will encourage entrepreneurship, but currently people are afraid to start their own business for fear of losing the health insurance provided at their existing job. (Right To Health Care)

Claude Fox, author for Clinical Research & Regulatory Affairs, states, "There are geographic barriers, such as living in isolated, rural areas or lacking transportation to community health centers." Even though The Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that all humans are legally obligated to have fair and equal access to health care, the truth lies within a number of issues that deal with the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of the health care services to be offered to all citizens. (Leary) According to the International Covenant in Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, better known as ICESCR, "Access to health care is determined by the availability, accessibility of services to the public; the acceptability to different cultures, sexes, and age groups; and the quality of the services." (Leary) In order for medical professions to offer all of these services properly, health care officials must provide their services in a non-discriminatory way. (Leary) The health care facilities, services and programs within the US are overflowing in terms of quantity, however, the citizens of the US are not able to afford or have the access and availability to reach these services, which are basic rights to all humans residing in the US. (Leary)

Health care should be a right to all citizens because it will promote equal opportunity by decreasing the number of people who are economically disadvantaged in society due to bad health and medically-related financial trouble. (Right To Health Care) Services are crucial to the functioning of a community, just like all other utilities, and should therefore be guaranteed