By: Julia Valencia 

People Editor

Health care is a fundamental human right that everyone should have access to, and it should not be treated as a privilege. It is essential for survival, and it should not be reserved for only those who can afford it. 

A person’s access to health care can be the difference between life and death, and withholding the proper care from someone who simply cannot afford it presents a troublesome ethical situation. No one should have to suffer because they lack financial resources. A government that neglects health care fails in its duty to serve the public’s well-being. In exchange for taxes, a common understanding is that the government must protect basic human needs, of which health care makes up a large percentage. A government’s investment in its citizens benefits the nation as a whole.. 

The American health care system ranked last in a 2024 Commonwealth Fund study looking into health care from ten high-income countries. Joseph Betancourt, president of the Commonwealth Fund, said, “The US is failing one of its principal obligations as a nation: to protect the health and welfare of its people.” 

The countries included in the report consisted of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It focused on a few factors, including: access to health care, the care process, and health outcomes. The US has the highest rate of preventable deaths along with a lower-than-average life expectancy out of the ten countries. The Commonwealth Fund also reported that “the US spends nearly 18 percent of GDP on health care, yet Americans die younger and are less healthy than residents of other high-income countries.” 

As of 2024, the US has 26 million uninsured individuals out of a population of 335 million, mainly attributed to the exorbitant out-of-pocket prices required to pay for health care . The argument that universal health care is too expensive is significantly flawed, as preventative care provided through universal health care saves much more money in the long run. Medicare For All, an act introduced to Congress in 2003, aimed to establish a universal single-payer national health care system. A study by Yale epidemiologists found that Medicare for All would save around 68,000 lives a year while reducing U.S. health care spending by around 13%, or $450 billion a year.

Providing health care for all is not just a moral obligation, it is a necessity. The current system in the United States fails millions of people, leaving them without the care they need simply because they cannot afford it. No one should have to choose between going into debt or receiving life-saving treatment. It is time for the US to recognize that health care is a human