Free Essay Example. Health Care Debate

The reason why the US does not have proper health care is racism and lack of political goodwill. The US is a developed country with one of the strongest economies in the world. However, it does not have a robust universal healthcare system that places every American on the same platform (Jeneen). Historically, the development of the health care system favors whites over any other race in the US. Despite being a high-income earning nation, the US is one of the developed countries whose people cannot enjoy health care equally (Jeneen). The deep-rooted healthcare disparities in the US have a long history based on racism with no robust policy by the national government to resolve the everlasting racial gap in the healthcare system. Over the years, federal health care policy facilitates incremental changes in the health care system, but with a particular race in mind, while side-lining others, especially the black-American. Jeneen suggests that even when the government claimed to enlarge the health care system to black-dominated rural areas, the states controlled funding and isolated health facilities in these areas.

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The racial disparity in the US, limiting the development of universal health care has a long history. The exclusion of blacks by the US healthcare system has a long history. At some point, black students were not allowed to join medical schools, and black health professionals were turned away by medical associations while black patients suffered in health facilities. In all scenarios of racial disparities in the health care system, blacks are the primary victims. Mainly, the primary system focus is to belittle black Americans in receiving health services. Even employer-based healthcare schemes were difficult for blacks to access. Specifically, blacks did not get jobs that provided health care coverage (Jeneen). Blacks covered by employer-based health programs did not access health care meant for people of color. As a result, blacks came formed parallel healthcare organizations to access medical services of which the federal government vehemently opposed and condemned.

The enslaved leaders in the US are not there for everyone in matters of creating universal health care. Being oppressed by racism, leaders cannot see the need of building a welfare state that equates all people. Political leaders focus on fiscal and political debates at the expense of the social security net. It is challenging to build a welfare state when racism has its share in the minds of the leaders. American will continue dreaming for universal health care available in countries like the UK and Germany. During the presidency of Roosevelt, () note that discrimination still dominated leaders of the age. Some of the employees welfare programs introduced by Roosevelt excluded none whites. Such programs prioritized whites' concerns and their supremacy.

In the list of developing countries, the health care system of the US is frustrating. Quoctrung and Sarah highlight that developed countries in Europe have implemented sustainable and affordable health care for their citizens without discrimination. For instance, countries like Canada provides universal health care to every resident in the country. It is the same case in Germany, France and the UK (Quoctrung and Sarah). The transformation journal of building a credible universal health care system is not free. Countries a robust health care system such as the UK and Canada have battled very hard to get into the situation they are in currently. While the US performs incremental changes to its health care system to cover a particular target group, such as the poor, countries like Canada and Germany transform the entire health care system for everyone in the country (Quoctrung and Sarah). The political conflict is at its best in derailing implementation of comprehensive universal health care in the US. The building of a single-payer system in developed countries in Europe faced criticism and opposition from different stakeholders, and it took them a long period to creating their stable universal health care system for all.

Canada, the UK and Australia have implemented a sustainable universal health care system covering everybody in the country. The results of the undulating journey by the governments of these countries are the universal health care system to all. The US can follow the same route and secure a comprehensive health care system for all people in the country. It has the economic capability but lacks the political goodwill to act accordingly. The role played by the political goodwill is unprecedented to the development of the robust health care systems enjoyed by citizens of these countries. Unlike Australia, the UK, and Canada, private players dominate the health care system in the US through insurance plans. Reaching a consensus between political parties in the US will be the only way to achieve universal health care for all citizens and divorce racially discriminating health system.

In the end, achieving a universal health care system in the US will remain a nightmare until when political leaders will put their differences aside and aspire to build a welfare state fit for everybody. Besides, leaders must distance themselves from discriminatory practices that favour some and ignore others. The battle will be intense, but the fight should be won, just like in the UK, Germany, France, and Canada. Universal health care implies that all people are equal, and they deserve quality and sustainable health care system.

Work Cited

Eduardo, P. Why America Will Never Get Medicare for All. (2019). Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/sunday-review/medicare-for-all-america-racism.html

Jeneen. I. Why doesn't the US have universal health care? (2019). Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/universal-health-care-racism.html

Quoctrung, B., and Sarah. K. Strike and Attack Ad: The Hard Roads to the Universal Health Care (2020). Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/10/upshot/the-hard-road-other-countries-single-payer-health-care.html?searchResultPosition=4