Healthcare is a right, not a privilege
By Erica Irigoyen, Sports Editor
Published: Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Updated: Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Jessica Bravo, Citrus College Clarion
All Americans deserve healthcare. However, the costs of healthcare are at an all-time high. It’s time for Congress to reform the system"to help every American who is in need of medical assistance.
Our country should adopt universal healthcare for this reason alone"every American should have the right to the same healthcare coverage.
Approximately 46 million Americans lack health insurance, including 8 million children. Four out of five of those uninsured Americans are in working families.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation Employee Health Benefits Survey, the average employer-sponsored premium for a family of four costs close to $13,000 a year, and the employee pays about 30 percent, or $3,900, of this cost.
President Barack Obama has stated “the cost of healthcare causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds, and by the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes.”
A CBS news story in May of this year stated that the average emergency room visit costs about $1,000. However, that doesn’t include any extra tests, drugs or procedures that might result.
Americans with little or no health insurance hesitate, if they are sick or injured, to go to the doctor because they cannot afford it. Everyone should be able to take their injured or seriously ill loved ones to the emergency room without fear of receiving an outrageous bill.
A health fees Web site,
www.healthcarefees.com, lists numerous healthcare prices that people without insurance simply cannot afford.
This list includes child births ($6,500 to $11,500), in-patient surgeries such as, knee replacements and hip replacements ($5,858 to $9,000), out-patient surgeries like colonoscopies ($1,350 to $3,700), hospital rooms ($795 to $1,685), transplants ($67,000 to $300,000), helicopter transportation ($6,300 per flight), and ambulance transportation ($600 to $800 per trip).
In 2004, my 13 year old sister, Brooke, was complaining of sharp pains in her stomach. Turns out, she had kidney stones. She wasn’t hospitalized for the night"it was an in-and-out visit. My parents were charged $803.50 for the hospital visit.
Thankfully, my parents have health insurance and only had to pay what the insurance company didn’t cover ($35). But most people don’t get off that easy. For the 46 million Americans without health insurance, an $803 hospital bill is an outrageous price.
Americans are stressed out enough with the employment issues related to a failing economy"losing jobs and homes, trying to get by from week to week. We shouldn’t have to worry about whether we can afford basic healthcare.
Granted, all Americans will have to assist one another if Congress decides to adopt a universal healthcare system. But the very fact that nobody, no matter their age or health condition, will be turned away by healthcare providers, should give everyone a sense of relief.
No longer will parents be in the situation that they cannot afford to take their child to the doctor. And if we do lose our jobs during a future financial crisis, we won’t lose the health coverage that goes along with it.
Universal healthcare could also benefit college students. Once students turn 18, if they aren’t considered a full-time student, they get taken off of their parents’ insurance. With universal healthcare, students wouldn’t have to worry about getting all 12 units to stay covered under their parents. They can worry about other things, such as succeeding in the classes and trying to get jobs so they can have a little extra spending money.
The fact that the United States’ economy is in trouble and unemployment is rising should be the push we need to pass universal healthcare.