“Give me your Tired, Your Poor…but not Your Sick”

                Access to healthcare services is something every human being is entitled to. The United States spends 15% of its GDP on healthcare; this is a higher percentage than any other nation in the world. This certainly means that we must be the longest lived and healthiest people on the planet, right? Alas, this does not seem to be the case. The life expectancy in America is 78.5, placing us 50^th in the world. Our infant mortality rates are absurdly high at 6 deaths per 1000 live births. Healthcare is a very complex issue, so of course there are many factors to consider when wondering what we’re doing wrong.

                The biggest problem with our healthcare system is that it is largely privatized and not 100% universal. Considering the amount that is spent on healthcare, it is obscene that our government has not adopted a universal healthcare system that would cover all citizens. Compared to countries like France, Canada and Japan, the United States’ healthcare system seems to function in a way that is actively antagonistic towards the people it is supposed to serve. Running any healthcare organization for-profit is counter-intuitive  If you have no ill people seeking services, you aren't making money. If healthcare is treated as a product designed to deliver profit, it only makes sense to bleed people (pun definitely intended) in order to gain said profit. Over 60% of bankruptcies are filed due to high medical bills. When faced with astronomical medical bills due to liver failure, my mother chose to commit suicide rather than file for bankruptcy again. As much as I do enjoy thinking I’m a special snowflake, I know that I cannot be the only person who has had this sort of situation in their life. This is egregious. No one should be backed into that corner. No one in this country, the greatest country in the world, should feel it is necessary to terminate their own life because they literally cannot afford to be alive.

                Another serious flaw in our current healthcare system is the lack of price regulation (“Why an MRI costs $1080 in America and $280 in France”, Ezra Klein). In America, the cost of an MRI averages $1080, but in Germany the average cost for the same procedure is $599 and in France the cost is lower still (“US versus European Healthcare costs: the Data”). We use the same technology, so why are we paying exorbitant prices for the same care? Simply put, our government doesn't seem to be in our corner when it comes to our health. In other countries, the government aggressively intervenes to keep prices low for their citizens. Meanwhile, in the United States we are gouged for services that are owed to us. In the “land of the free”, life certainly isn't free. Capitalism is the beast that is killing us. It allows the healthcare industry to charge outrageous fees for life itself. Pharmaceutical companies charge astronomical prices for their product and give doctors incentives for prescribing whichever drug is the “new hotness”.

 Physicians in this country make double, sometimes triple what doctors in other first world countries make, and they actively lobby against the needs of their patients. The AMA has not only lobbied for limiting the number of physicians (“Health Care in the United States”), but also lobbies to limit more cost effective alternative medicine such as midwifery. As someone who intends on going into the medical field, I find this appalling. The primary reason one should want to be a physician is to heal the sick, not to fill your pockets.

At the end of the day, every person is entitled to be healthy. Life is precious, it is not a product to be bought and sold. Personally, I’m surprised by the amount of people who insist that life is sacred, but in the same breath speak of the “evils of socialized healthcare”. Well, which is it? Either life is sacred and we must do everything in our power to preserve it, or socialized healthcare is evil and only those who can afford to live can have life.