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President Roosevelt's Argumentative Essay: Is Healthcare A Right?

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In healthcare, there are many issues that have been debated for many years with little to no progress in decision making. One of these issues is whether healthcare is a right or a privilege. This has been an issue that was debated since before Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency. In one of his little known speech's, President Roosevelt explained that he believed healthcare is a right, not a privilege, for all United States citizens(Sunstein, 2004). He explained in his Second Bill of Rights what he believed are rights that should be given to all citizens, such as right to medical care. He addressed this right in his State of the Union speech, because it was very important to him and he wanted to try and implement his plan (Sunstein, 2004). …show more content…

One of the major benefits is that citizens have a right to have comfort in their lives. President Roosevelt explained this in his New Deal many years before his Second Bill of Rights, which outlines a list of rights instead of a broad subject (Sunstein, 2004). The Second Bill of Rights helped this generation become known as "The Greatest Generation" (Sunstein, 2004). This title is mainly due to the rights that President Roosevelt offered in his Second Bill of Rights. This document has been used as a guide to many countries when writing their own constitutions, but the United States has not used President Roosevelt's guide in our own constitution. Using this as a basis would help politicians has a start on understanding the needs of universal healthcare. Roosevelt thought that this would help benefit Americans in a time of warfare and time of economic distress, meaning it could be beneficial now in a time of rising national debt and increasing aging …show more content…

Many people cannot keep up with medical bills, especially if there are chronic illnesses. Many patients end up having to forgo medical costs, such as prescriptions, testing, or doctor appointments, for things such as food and other bills. This is true in both uninsured patients and patients who have insurance but have high deductibles or uninsurable illnesses. In a study done in 2007, it was found that 20% of Americans have problems with medical costs (Cunningham, 2008). That is exponentially higher than in 2003 where it was only 14% of Americans (Cunningham, 2008). This increase in medical cost burden has also caused many bankruptcies related to medical costs. This burden can also lead to increased stress. This was related to the costs, not being able to be treated, worrying about expenses, and lowered ability of functioning. The cycle that is started when treatment is not affordable is detrimental in some cases. In a chronically ill patient, having to forgo treatments because of cost restraints can change ability of functioning cause problems with jobs and adding to the cost restraints already established. This cycle needs to be ended with more affordable health care availability, which will exponentially increase American's quality of life. This increase in quality of life can lead to a better experience within the healthcare system, which can lead to better insurance payouts for hospitals

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