I  participated in a session that discussed Health care in the US which is an extremely important topic still debated as everyone needs access to health care, yet there is major disagreement on how to achieve it.We first discussed whether health care was a “right”. Whether all individuals should be entitled to health care, despite socioeconomic differences. Based on the article that we read, the majority of Americans believe that people should have access to healthcare, yet the concern is that there will be those that will take advantage of the system.  As the Americans’ interviewed expressed a similar belief in not wanting to have their taxes be utilized for individuals that would not work to defray costs due to medical expenses. Therein lies a major problem for the politicians: how to make health care coverage accessible to all, but make it affordable. Yet the greatest problem arises from the medical institutions/ insurance companies. As the majority of healthcare payments in lost due to administrative work between insurance companies that offer different plans for the same benefits. If the government could offer a basic plan that companies could abide by so that the people’s taxes could go directly towards funding their healthcare/medicine/surgeries, the US would be able to have a universal health care system that would not bankrupt the nation.

Anyone who has been watching the news since last November will know that one of the more prominent issues in politics is what to do with the current health care bill, Obamacare. There have been multiple attempts to affect it, either by improving it, replacing it, or just getting rid of it with no replacement or back up. Those who want to keep it argue that universal healthcare is a right that everyone should have without being forced to cover bills that they can’t pay, while those that want it repealed believe that an individual should pay for their own way in life, rather than have everyone be responsible for them and pay for their health coverage. The argument seems to come down to what people believe is a “right”. We always hear about the “right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. And its clear that everyone has a right to see a doctor and be healthy. But does that mean they also have a right to have other’s pay for their visit. To me, if the question is phrased like that, it almost seems like they’re purposely taking advantage of the system. I see it more as having the right to be able to continue living with the same quality of life, before and after being sick. It doesn’t seem right for someone to be so drastically penalized for something they can’t control. An obvious argument brought up by the New Yorker article that we had to read for this Table Talk is that a hard working family should not provide benefit to someone who’s taking advantage of the system. And there will most likely be some people that just laze around, not bothering to put any effort into life and just leeching off the system. However, I believe that those who benefit and deserve to far outweigh those who take advantage. There’s no reason everyone should pay the consequence for a few bad apples. This is clearly an issue that will remain a topic of discussion in politics for many years(and possibly presidents) to come, and hopefully we’ll come to a conclusion that benefits everyone.

For those with interest in this topic, here is the article: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/02/is-health-care-a-right

I had the opportunity to participate in a table talk last week that discussed healthcare in the United States.  We first talked about how healthcare should be a right of all US citizens, but we couldn’t agree on an effective application of it to benefit the most people.  We soon moved on to talk specifically about the Affordable Care Act.  The thing that was interesting about this part of our conversation was that the various people at the table had different opinions of it.  I realized that, like any other debate, there are going to be people who appreciate the Affordable Care Act and others who dislike it and want it to be gotten rid of: what we have to realize is that there will always be people who object to a healthcare plan, but we need to still create (or revise) something that will benefit the most people.

As I heard the thoughts of some of the other students at the table, I was impressed by how much they knew about the situation and what perspectives they provided us about healthcare in this country.  Since most of this information was new to me, I realized that I in fact know little about this subject: I decided that I must become a more informed citizen so that I can have rational conversations with people that have similar and differing opinions on the subject.  It would be nice to have more dinner conservations with my friends like this one.

Last Monday,  I participated in the table talk about healthcare system. We talked about many problems raised with whole society healthcare system, for instance, the delay of healthcare service. However, as an international student, I think about this problem with my own healthcare experience in Cornell.

Since I have the student health insurance, I got the best quality health care I can ever obtain in my life. I have two times referred to doctors in Cayuga Medical Center. Both of these two doctors graduate from top tier medical school (like Columbia), and gave me good treatment. What really impressed me is that they not only offered me good treatment, but also explained to me why that was the best solution for me. They are both polite, and respect me a lot.

From this perspective, I would say that the healthcare should be a right. If everyone can get this kind of healthcare service, people can get health both physically and mentally.

This week’s table talk was about the fundamental question of whether or not healthcare is a right. To answer this question, we first had to define what is a right and who should be the one providing this right (the federal or state government? The United Nations?). A lot of what we take for granted are actually rights, like the right to clean water or trash removal. These responsibilities are handled by the government and there is no debate about it. However, the problem with healthcare is that it is so firmly intertwined to employment. One really interesting thing I learned from the article is that in World War II, the government imposed a wage freeze to keep labour costs from skyrocketing. Employers needed to somehow attract desired employees so the government allowed them to increase health insurance benefits and made them tax-exempt. Because of this context of history, health insurance coverage is tied to jobs leaving those who do not have company jobs (low-wage workers, the unemployed, small business owners, children, the elderly, and the disabled) with more obstacles for attaining insurance.

Unsurprisingly, the US is frequently ranked worst in the developed world for the healthcare system. In my opinion, it’s pretty embarrassing that we even have to have a debate about whether or not healthcare is a right. It comes down to the moral question about whether people who are wealthy have more of a right to live compared to those who cannot afford insurance. GRF Sara was telling us about how when she visits the doctor’s office in Canada (where there is a publicly funded healthcare system), she sees people of all different races and socioeconomic backgrounds in the waiting rooms. But in America, she does not necessarily see that. That was really disheartening to hear and as I reflect upon it, my own experiences match up. Certainly there are drawbacks to universal healthcare and I am not informed enough to come to any sort of conclusion but a system based on discrimination against the weak and poor seems fundamentally wrong. The answer to the original question ‘Is healthcare a right?’ was overwhelmingly ‘yes’ by the other Rose Scholars at the table. With our participation in democracy, I really hope we can progress in the right direction.