Health Care in the United States: Right, Privilege or Responsibility?

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Health Care in the United States: Right, Privilege or Responsibility? In America today, we struggle to define exactly what it means to have health care. The definition of health care according to HIPPA is the “care, services or supplies related to the health of an individual” (DeWald). The biggest concern of all with this definition is that it sparks a debate about who is entitled to it, who should pay for it, and who is accountable, but what does that mean? Who should have the constitutional, legal, or moral obligation to this growing entity? The answer to this question lies in many different forms of opinions and may not very well be answered, as personal opinion seems to overrule and outweigh the logic of it. Today, I will be evaluating each one of these topics to help come to a conclusion of health care and how it is considered a right, privilege, or responsibility. Right There are many different types of rights that US citizens are entitled to such as the right to vote, the freedom of speech, and the pursuit of happiness, but where does the right of the health and health care of these citizens fall? The Preamble of the US Constitution states that (the purpose of health care) is to "promote" for the general welfare, not to provide it (ProCon). The general welfare of the society isn’t just defined through health care specifically. In fact, there is nothing in the US Constitution that precisely states who has a right to health care, but the Constitution does state that the people of the United States have the right to set their own health care priorities. Ironically, the only people in the United States who have a justifiable right to health care are the incarcerated. “Under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, it has been determined that prisoners (or inmates) have a constitutional right to adequate health care” (Bednar).
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