HEALTH CARE: IS IT A RIGHT OR A COMMODITY?

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Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever the nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. Each and every individual is equally entitled to their own human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible (United Nations Human Rights, 2006). In the United States today, a primary controversy that is often debated upon is whether health care is a human right or a commodity. If health care is a right, then all citizens should have equal and fair access to similar care, whether they have medical insurance and can afford it or not. If health care is a commodity, then it is like houses, cars, clothing, etc. and all citizens would have access to care that is, in essence, within their price range. Naturally, the rich and wealthy will have access to the more superior care and the poor to a lower level of care. With that being said, health care today is, in fact, a commodity for sale. Meaning that those who have more money can afford and purchase high quality health care and those who do not have as much money have to settle for less, or perhaps, none at all. It can be inferred that damage is more likely than not occurring to individuals’ self-worth and pride when inequalities proceed to exist. For decades sociologists have proven that individual’s emotional well-being corresponds with their rank on the social class ladder. Meaning that the lower they rank on the social class ladder, the worse their emotional well-being is. Therefore, those included in the lower social classes are more than likely going to have problems with anxiety, nervousness, and or depression (Muntaner & Lynch, 1999). With that being... ... middle of paper ... ...ates with luxurious hospitals and graduates from the best medical schools; however, Canada has The Canadian Health Act in place which allows all insured residents the same level of health care. Under the Canadian Health Act, health services also cannot be denied due to financial inability to pay premiums. With that being said, Canada does boast one of the highest life expectancies and lowest infant mortality rates of industrialized countries, which many attribute to Canada's health care system (Canadian Health Care, 2004). Although the law in the United States is improving by making it easier for people to access health care, it is most certain that the law will not eliminate inequalities altogether. Since changes are still being made to this law, we will have to see what kind of impact The Affordable Care Act has on inequalities in health care in the years to come.

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