Healthcare should be free for all; some students disagree

Imagine being an Australiaian, new to America and getting in a car wreck. Such a person has only been in America for two weeks and has already gone bankrupt. Because of the crippling costs of healthcare in our country, this could actually happen. In light of healthcare reform being on everybody’s minds who is following the 2020 Democratic primaries, this issue is more important than ever. Like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, I too agree that healthcare should be free for all. Healthcare should be free because it would make people who are high on income and people who are low on income be equal. Although som people say that healthcare is not a constitutional right and that we would end up paying more taxes, this is not true. Just like school, quality roads, protection from fire, and protection from foreign attack are human rights that our taxes pay for, so is the right to visit a doctor when one is sick. Since all people are equal--rich people and poor people--all people should have equal access to health care. To reiterate, healthcare should be free due to the fact that people with low income are suffering and are not able to do anything about it.

Healthcare should also be free because it results in better care for all. For example, we would have higher survival rates in America with this benefit. According to an article from TheBalance.com, Canada has the has the highest survival rate in the world with a free health care system. America is ranked number 28 due to the fact that not everyone can receive care. Similar to this statistic is another: the third leading cause of death in the United States is medical error. People die all the time because the quality of their care was little to none. If the government oversaw healthcare, like in Canada and other countries, perhaps people in the US would live longer and better lives too.

Some might argue that the biggest reason not to provide free healthcare for all is that it would cause taxes to go up, but this is not necessarily true. For one, if we cut some of the taxes for a war that’s not going anywhere then there would be money left over to allot towards healthcare. Secondly, even if taxes were to go up, it would be replacing what people already pay in premiums and deductables. Let’s say every month a teacher gets $300 deducted from her pay check for health insurance. As long as the new taxes were lower than that, what difference does it matter if they go up? The person is still paying the same, or possibly less than, what she was already paying out of her own pocket.

Several students at Airport were asked what they thought about this issue, including Amaya E., a Junior, who says that the cost of care in America is almost double to the amount in countries like Germany, Canada, or Australia. She states that she doesn’t think it’s right for the government to look at healthcare as a money making system.

Disagreeing with Amaya is Chandler O. He says that people should have to work for what they have. “We can not be all gimmy gimmy all the time,” Chandler explains.

Chloe S. believes that while people need to work for what they have, health care should always be free: “I would be fine with paying more taxes for free health care if I’m being honest. I know that my money would be going to people who are in crucial need of a doctor or a baby that needs it’s check up.”

Health care should be free for equal rights. Everyone deserves to have doctors appointments. We should not have to pay over 3,000 dollars to receive care in a hospital while countries like Australia are only paying up to 250 dollars.

This is our future. Don’t sleep on healthcare.