Free «Health Care in the United States» Essay Paper

Introduction

Health is a fundamental need of every individual. Therefore, federal government is obliged to ensure its citizens enjoy healthcare services to the same extent as any other public utility like education and security. Healthy nation has many advantages in comparison to an ill-health one, since a population of individuals with good health status can boost general development and improvement of the nation. For instance, healthy people can provide labor at industries for production purposes, healthy soldiers can protect the nation against possible external enemies, but the biggest advantage is that the mortality rates can subsequently reduce thus increasing the life expectancy of a given state. In this regard, the following essay examines the health care system in the United States of America based on the Sicko movie.

Discussion

In the movie “Sicko,” the author focuses on the poor health in the United States and its causes, predicts the outcomes and compares the way the health care systems of the US and such countries as the UK, France, and Canada are controlled. In this regard, the author is very clear on the critique of the systems used in the United States of America. As mentioned above, health is supposed to be a public good, and exhaustion by one individual should not affect the reception of similar services by another one. Therefore, the government is obliged to provide the health care services to its people for free, but the US has adopted the policies which transform the health sector into a profit-making business (Moore, 2007).

Many citizens hope that since they pay for the services they are guaranteed to receive the safest lifesaving facilities that meet the highest standards as compared to the nations where the government is levied to provide the resources for health care free of charge. The author reveals that a significant number of Americans is not insured by respective companies, which pay for the cover of medical requirements from the monthly charges imposed on their members.

The USA is generally known for its superiority in the majority of the spheres of life. The country is considered the best in security due to its possession of the most modern and lethal warfare, and is also ranked among the best in terms of economic stability and democracy (Callenbach, 2008). The democratic hail appears to be for those few people who have the voice and power, while the majority is left to survive in their own lives. It can be observed that the insurance system is corrupt and does not exercise any democratic values to the consumer. The system has failed to ensure it covers all the individuals, and it takes the advantage and manipulates the few citizens whom it has under its cover.

Poor policies and systems organization is another challenge that can be noticed from the film plot. The World Health Organization (WHO) takes into account the evaluation of all nations and ensuring they abide by the international health standards in the delivery of its services (Moore, 2007). Implementation of the stated policies as well as the saved and lost lives are the figures used to estimate how the health care sector of an individual nation is performing. Furthermore, it was reported that the nation is unable to beat the high rates of child mortality despite all the charges imposed on the service delivery. The US was found to tally with the nations that offer free health care in terms of infant mortality rates and life expectancy. This undoubtedly holds the policies responsible for the poor records.

The stalemate continued, and the few individuals, who thought they were covered by the insurance bodies, were even denied the care as revealed from the interviews conducted in the movie. Furthermore, it became apparent that cost-cutting was just a mere exhaustion of general public, since the collected funds were directed towards giving bonuses to the insurance-bound medical care providers. Evidently, the insurance companies are rather egocentric and have created the filth within the health sector thus exploiting the citizens (Callenbach, 2008). Sadly, the stalemate is going to be an existing problem as long as the provision of chargeable health services less concern about health is recognized as a way of money sourcing from the citizens with.

The presented in the film comparison of the USA national health systems and those operating in European nations leaves the Americans in a shock. For instance, in the United Kingdom, patients report not giving any out-of pocket charges for health services they receive. Those who are employed are well covered by the insurance systems in case of private services, but the public facilities are completely free. Individuals at the age of 16 years and below as well as those between sixteen and seventeen years old who are still pursuing their primary education are all entitled to receiving free services. The older people, those of sixty years and above, together with unemployed individuals are also guaranteed free health services and free pharmaceuticals. Contrariwise, in the US.A, the lack of identified and well working national health system has exposed the citizens to too much suffering (Callenbach, 2008).

Another nation visited by the author is France where he finds a well improved and organized system that is also encouraging the citizens to procreate by giving motivational tokens for new mothers. The author reports that the federal body provides new mothers with daycare for $1 per hour, free college education, five weeks paid vacation, and neonatal support that includes cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Many women appear to worry about their jobs a lot more than creating and taking care of a family. Therefore, all the privileges are meant to improve such situation for the better. However, the USA cannot meet such requirements even though the country has quite stable economy (Kao, 2008).