Argumentative Essay on Why Healthcare Should Be Free

Back in February of 2018, a woman named Marlena Wilzbach was driving her kids home from school, when a truck driver ran a red light and hit them head on. Unfortunately, Marlena took most of the impact which caused her severe spinal injury and would need invasive back surgery if she wanted a chance at gaining normal mobility again. There was only one problem though, and that was the price tag attached to this surgery which came to a grand total of $300,000. Due to her husband being self-employed, they had no health insurance and would therefore need to sell their house they created all their memories in if they wanted a chance at paying off this massive amount of debt. In other industrialized economies, you rarely see this happening if at all, which is why healthcare should be free because no one should have to go bankrupt from an injury or illness, and people would address their health issues much earlier on. 

Marlena’s situation is but one of many cases that happen in the US regarding the healthcare system. Back in 2019, a woman of West Palm Beach Florida who was diagnosed with cancer, had no other choice but to file for bankruptcy after her medical expenses overwhelmed her despite having health insurance. She stated that her insurance only covered the bed because the hospital was out of network and everything else such as the actual treatment, she was sadly charged for. No one can predict when they’ll fall victim to an illness such as the likes of cancer and or be subjected to serious injuries which is why when these things do happen, no one should have to think to themselves, “Can I afford this?”. This single question is why many people just choose to walk off their injury or wait until the disease is “bad enough” to the point they have no other choice but to go seek treatment which brings up another reason why healthcare should be free. 

The final reason why healthcare should be free is because people would take care of their health issues when they’re minor. A December 2019 poll, shows that a quarter of the American population have either delayed, or know someone who has delayed medical treatment for an illness due to how much it would cost them. One example of this statistic is a woman named Susan Finley who called in sick because she had to recover from pneumonia and accidentally took off a day extra than what was permitted by Walmart’s attendance policy. Due to this “violation”, she was laid off and stripped of her health insurance which caused her to hold off on seeing a doctor, fearing that it would cost too much and as a result, passed away 3 months later. More than 26,000 Americans die from lack of health insurance because they don’t want their family or theirselves to deal with the burden of piled up medical bills which causes them to die from preventable diseases such as pneumonia. 

Some may say free healthcare would be a bad thing because no one should have to pay for someone else’s healthcare, but looking at it from a different perspective, shows that this would be the better option. Not only is it cheaper, but it also benefits you and your family because they wouldn’t have to hold off on a preventable disease or worry about how much their back surgery would cost during the aftermath of a car crash. In addition, it’s not just you contributing to the system, but everyone else is doing the same thing which is paying for your healthcare as well in a sense which prevents you from being the person worrying about the cost for a doctor's visit. There will be people out there that do ruin their health on purpose by either smoking or drinking, but why should people who randomly end up with a serious disease be stripped of their basic human right because a chronic smoker would “abuse” the system? 

In conclusion, healthcare should be free because no one should have to worry about the cost of an injury or illness and less people would die from preventable diseases. The current healthcare system that’s put into place, is purely a for-profit system that only benefits those lucky enough to have good insurance or the ultra rich of this country. Free healthcare may not be perfect like some think it is, but it would significantly be a better option than what’s in place now. It’s time we stop insurance companies from putting a price tag on a basic human right and go out and vote for the people who also agree that healthcare should be accessible to everyone regardless of race, gender, and income.