Development of Anti Universal Health care system in the US

Development of Anti-Universal Healthcare in the United States

Cultural Ideology against Universal Healthcare

Fundamentally, the cultural ideology has been advanced by critics of universal healthcare in the United States; thus, creating a hindrance in the adoption of the healthcare model in the US. The proponents of the ideology argue that the U.S has intensely diverse racial and ethnic groups spread across a vast geographical area with a high population of over 300 million (Zieff et al. 580). Therefore, for the United States, the populations in different regions have varied cultural identities characterized by distinct religious, cultural, and political beliefs that have a direct impact on the socio-economic framework of the communities in the United States (Carvalho et al. 2). Further, the extensive lands and regions of the United States have heterogenous climatic conditions and populations dynamics or densities that have a direct influence on the healthcare requirements or needs as well as the challenges (Rovner 3). Essentially, the cultural and social factors captured in the cultural ideology have made it difficult to implement the universal healthcare system in the United States.

Economic Ideology against Universal Healthcare

Critics of the universal healthcare have constantly focused on the economic ideology as a stumbling block in the adoption of universal healthcare system in the United States. The basis of their proposition is that the universal healthcare program is economically or financially infeasible. Certainly, it is clear that the implementation of the universal healthcare program would demand hefty upfront costs that would result to a massive strain on the federal budget (Zieff et al. 580). As such, these economic costs entail the following elements. The cost of physical and technology-related infrastructural adjustments to the healthcare system that would cover local, state, and federal government policies as well as the provider levels including pharmacy, outpatient-clinic, and the healthcare facilities or hospitals (Rovner 4). The cost of treatment or insurance for a substantial, previously uninsured, huge unhealthy proportion of the population. Further, the cost of expanding the range of medical and clinical services such as optical and dental to the population of the United States (Carvalho et al. 3). In this regard, the economic ideology has slowed the pace of the realization of universal healthcare in the USA.

The Principle of Social Justice

Indeed, the principle of justice or social justice focuses on the issue of equal treatment or moral worth. In this regard, all individuals in the United States have equal right to access healthcare of quality and affordable nature (Elias and Yin 48). However, the ethical principle of social justice is violated by the healthcare system of the United States. Admittedly, some regions in the US register significant disparities in the access to healthcare in the sense that some locations with minority communities have limited access to proper healthcare services (Berwick 226). Thus, the health outcomes from these regions are less appealing thus, the vulnerable groups residing in these areas are at a greater health risk regime.

The Principle of Confidentiality and Autonomy

The matter of confidentiality relating to patients’ health is a major concern in the United States’ healthcare system. Indeed, the ethical principle of confidentiality demands that medical professional should not share health information of patients to third parties without informed consent or autonomy (Berwick 225). However, some regions of the United States, especially, the low-income neighborhoods have faulty systems of healthcare-records that lead to information leakage to third parties such as pharmaceutical companies (Elias and Yin 47). Thus, the healthcare outcomes of the vulnerable groups in these locations are adversely affected since the information leakage may lead to exposure of their medical conditions and cause psychological torture. 

Works Cited

Berwick, Donald M. "The moral determinants of health." Jama 324.3 (2020): 225-226.

Carvalho, Carlos, et al. "Universal Healthcare Debate." Salem Center (2020).

Elias, Amanuel, and Yin Paradies. "The costs of institutional racism and its ethical implications for healthcare." Journal of bioethical inquiry 18.1 (2021): 45-58.

Rovner, Julie. "The complicated, political, expensive, seemingly eternal US healthcare debate explained." BMJ 367 (2019).

Zieff, Gabriel, et al. "Universal healthcare in the United States of America: a healthy debate." Medicina 56.11 (2020): 580.