Universal Health Care Essay

Running Head: Pros and Cons of Universal Healthcare

Pros and Cons of Universal Healthcare: How it Impacts Cost, Access and Quality of Care
Kailon Pinckney, Paulette Powell-Heath, Londa Philippeaux,
Debbie Stoll-Thompson and Bridgette Ransom
Strayer University

Pros and Cons of Universal Healthcare
PURPOSE AND SCOPE

The purpose of Universal health care is to provide health care to all individuals, which includes medical, dental, and mental health care.   Universal health care is to preserve and improve health regardless of gender, race, region, age, health status, income, or wealth and is seen as a human right.   According to the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, (2008)
The human right to health guarantees a system of health protection.   Everyone has a right to enjoy, on an equal basis, a variety of facilities, goods, services, and conditions necessary for the realization of the highest attainable stand of health. This right includes access to appropriate health care, and to the underlying social determinants of health, such as adequate food, housing, and a healthy environment. (p. 2)    
The scope of Universal health care is wide in range and dates back to Germany’s Health Insurance Bill of 1883, making Germany the world’s oldest universal health care system. Wikipedia stated that, (2009)
  Currently, universal health care systems were implemented in the period following the Second World War as a process of deliberate health care reform, intended to make health care available to all, in the spirit of Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1938, signed by every country doing so.   The US did not ratify the social and economic rights sections, including Article 25’s right to health. (p.2)
The following countries have some form of Universal health care: Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand, Belgium, United Kingdom Sweden Greece, Japan, Canada, Denmark, Australia, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and South...