What is Universal Health Care? Is it a Human Right?

Universal health care is basically a program that aims to provide basic health care facilities to all the people of the community in a particular region or country. The main objective of this system is that every citizen of a country is able to avail the basic health care without going bankrupt or taking loans.

Not every citizen of the country can avail the quality health care because of financial hindrances; Universal Health Care aims to eradicate all these obstacles so that a common citizen of the country can also avail the basic health care just like the upper class of the country.

The Universal Health Care system came into being in the early twentieth century; it was first started as a ‘sick fund,’ which was collected from the industry employers to spend on their health care. This system was thus introduced in the industries of Germany first and later spread to all the parts of the globe.

Governments have different plans for the Universal Health Care system, as they work according to their economy. Some governments have devised systems to cover all the population of the country by providing minimal to necessary healthcare facilities, while some governments took initiatives to provide healthcare to as many citizens as they can. Of course, the ultimate target is to provide healthcare to all the citizens, but there are different ways that, of course.

Universal Health Care is a system that has so many advantages and is a great initiative at keeping society healthy by providing healthcare for all. But that does not mean that there are no cons of Universal Health Care; let’s see the pros can con of the Universal Health Care system;

Advantages of Universal Health Care

Medical Health Care for All

The first advantage of Universal Health Care is its first object actually, which means that healthcare will be provided to all the people of the country. A health community will be a lot more helpful in building a stronger economy in the country.

Lowered Costs of Basic Health Care for All

Universal health care aims to ensure basic health care to all citizens at an affordable price. These lowered prices in the medical facilities will bring more patients to the hospitals, and the pharmaceutical and medical departments would definitely benefit from it. 

Although the decreased prices of the healthcare facilities won’t provide good revenue to the doctors, and there is no compensation for that, still the country will be able to lower its GDP, though a small fraction.

Equality in the Citizens

It is often seen that the doctors and practitioners offer their services to the elite class of the society only, but making their services so expensive that it is impossible for the common people to even seek help from them, but with the Universal Health Care system, healthcare is equal for all. The non-affording class of society can also avail of the health care facilities that were once limited to the ruling class only.

Longer Life Expectancy Rate

The life expectancy rate of a region depends on the healthy community of that region. If people are healthy, they tend to live a longer life than those who get sick and do not get treatment. Universal Health Care provides basic medical facilities to every individual, the rate of diseases is lowered, and contrary to that, the life expectancy rate increase.

Increased Demand for Medical Services

Many people in the community do not avail of medical health care facilities because they don’t have the finances to do so, but with the Universal Health Care system, where healthcare is made affordable for all, more and more people will seek medical help.

Looking from the perspective of doctors and practitioners, they want more and more patients to generate more revenue. When the hospitals are flooded with patients, the doctors will be able to work at a smooth pace.

Disadvantages of Universal Health Care

Long Wait Times

With affordable health care facilities, the flow of patients increases, and so the hospitals are flooded with patients. And because of the large flow of patients, they have to wait to avail of the services because the practitioners remain the same, but the patients have increased.

Struggling Governments Cannot Afford Universal Health Care

Universal Health Care makes medicine affordable for the people of the country, but the Government should have expenses to make that happen. Universal Health Care is a costly system, and underdeveloped and struggling countries cannot afford to give basic healthcare to all of their population.

Universal Health Care takes up 30-40% of the Yearly Budget

Medical Health Care facilities are not cheap, added the heavy fees of the doctors and healthcare practitioners. Universal Health Care takes up thirty to forty percent of the total budget of the country, and it is an enormous amount; not every country is able to give this much amount of its total budget to health care facilities.

Diminish the Quality

With the increased number of patients, the ones that require urgent medical facilities lack to avail the facility, and most of the time, they die fighting for their turn to see a medical practitioner. The medical health care practitioners are under so much pressure that they are not available for emergency cases, and they lose patients to time.

Universal Health Care is a great initiative, but seeing the disadvantages of Universal Health Care, one can say that it is not the best system. In every system, there is always space for improvement. If such a system is established that some of the doctors are specified to attend the critical patients and emergency situations, maybe the cons of Universal Health Care can be removed, but so far, there are no measures being taken to make that happen.

Is Universal Health Care A Human Right?

Universal Health Care should be made available to all the citizens of the country because nobody should die just because they cannot avail of basic medical health care. Although Health Care should not be compared with Health Insurance because Health Insurance might not be a human right, Health Care definitely is.

Every human being in society deserves to avail of basic healthcare facilities for being a part of the community. Several countries have made healthcare a human right in their constitution, but there are still many countries to make it a human right.

Over to You!

Universal Health Care is a boon and a bane to society so far because there are both advantages and disadvantages to this system. However, the advantages are definitely more than the cons, as it helps to restore health and basic healthcare in the community.

Universal Health Care aims at offering basic medical facilities to every individual in society. The purpose is to eradicate the diseases and establish a healthier community, as well as make it possible and readily available for all the citizens to avail of this facility.

The poor citizens no longer have to take hefty loans or sell their assets whenever they get sick. With Universal Health Care Coverage, every individual in society will be able to avail of this service!

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