The World Health Organization has regarded health as one of the fundamental human rights. The constitution of the health Organization attests to the fact that a high standard of health should be regarded as a fundamental human right to which every human on the face of the earth should have access. This right has been defined to include the right to timely, affordable and acceptable health care that is of appropriate quality.
There are four key elements that the right to health entails. They include availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality. In terms of availability, there should be an adequate quantity of public health that is functioning at a high enough capacity so as to facilitate the provision of healthcare to the general population. In terms of accessibility, a country should make concerted efforts to ensure that health care facilities, including goods and services are made available to everyone. In this regard moreover, the country must make sure that there is no discrimination in the process of provision of this healthcare, there is physical accessibility, and there is affordability and also, accessibility of information to the citizenry in order to improve the healthcare of its citizens. In terms of acceptability, a country must also make sure that in all health facilities; all goods and services related to health must respect all medical ethics and are also culturally appropriate to the cultural belief system of the citizens of the country. Moreover, gender sensitivity is also a criterion. In terms of quality of care, a country must also ensure that it maintains a high quality of health care for its citizenry (WHO, 2013).
In recent times, most of the stakeholders in the healthcare industry have conceded that the increasing costs of healthcare are not sustainable. The cost of health insurance premiums are said to be at an all-time high. Moreover, this cost is said to continue to rise.
In 2007, a total of $2.2 trillion was spent on health care. This figure amounted to 16% of the gross domestic product of the United States. This figure also amounted to a 14% increase over a seven-year period from year 2000. The figure also amounts to $7400 per person. Deaths from chronic diseases from conditions such as stroke, diabetes and cancers account for 75% of the $2 trillion spent of health care. In year 2009 alone, an estimated $475.3 billion was the figure for the economic cost attributable to cardiovascular diseases and stroke. This includes about $323.8 billion the form of direct medical expenses and $161.5 billion in terms of indirect costs. Other health conditions like obesity also have its own cost on the population. In 2008, an estimated $147 billion was the figure for the economic cost of obesity on the economy (CDC, 2013).
The aforementioned are facts and figures that show that healthcare has a cost attached to it. The cost of health care in the United States is even more astronomical when compared to the cost of health care in similar developed countries of the world. The cost of healthcare includes the amount spent to develop infrastructures, the amount spent to train medical personnel among other costs. Moreover commercialization of healthcare is one of the factors that have led to spiraling out of hand.
Free health care is desirable in any population. Free health care would ensure that all the citizens of the country have all their health needs catered for. However, one would realize that health care needs substantial funds to set up. In order to meet laid down criteria set by the world health organization on the components of health care as a fundamental human right, a lot of investment needs to be made in the area of healthcare. At present, there is no country in the world that has been able to provide free and qualitative health care to all its citizens. A few countries have been able to provide universal health coverage in which a large percentage of the population is provided basic health care. However, not all health conditions are even covered by these forms of universal coverage. Other countries have commercialized health care to the extent that a lot of revenue is derived from it. India, for example derive a lot of revenue from medical tourism in which foreigners visit the country for treatment of their health condition and after their treatment is completed, they return to their parent country. Taking a look at all these, the realization is that free health care for all is a mirage at the present.
There are a number of obstacles that need to be surmounted before healthcare can be free for all. The world would have to become an egalitarian society in which the needs of the collective population is over and above that of individuals. Hospitals would have to forget about making any profit at all from providing healthcare to the people. Drug companies would also have to forget about making any kind of profit at all from manufactured drugs and vaccines while at the same time, continue to undergo research projects aimed at the discovery of new drugs and forms of treatments for medical ailments. Also, health care professionals would have to provide their services to the people for free, or at the most, accept a paltry sum as compensation for their services from the government. The government also needs to foot the bill of all healthcare cost. These would include the cost of setting up hospitals, the cost of investing in infrastructure, the initiative of continued research into the development of new cures for medical ailments among other things. At first sight, the aforementioned sound sarcastic. However, fortunately, they are rational reasons on the conditions to be met so as to make healthcare free for all.
The fact is that there is a lot of input that has gone into the provision of healthcare for it to be free for all. If healthcare staff are not properly motivated in terms of remuneration and terms of service, a lot of competent hands will be lost to other “more-rewarding” professions. Moreover, if pharmaceutical companies are also not motivated by the right profit margin, they would not discover new drugs that would aid the treatment of medical conditions. Also, if hospitals are also not motivated well enough, they would not invest too much in the provision of state-of-the-art facilities for the diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions.
Perhaps a compromise could be made. There could be a lot of control on the part of the government and other regulatory bodies to ensure that hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and also insurance companies do not enjoy too much luxury as to rip off people because they want to make excess profit. Perhaps the government can also subsidize health care for a category of people who cannot afford any form of health care coverage. Perhaps, a lot of health promotions campaigns are also undergone to prevent a lot of chronic medical conditions from progressing to the symptomatic phase so that a lot of cost is saved. However, if anyone thinks that hospitals all over the world should be free, all the aforementioned costs need to be taken care of in order to ensure this.
References
WHO (2013). The Right to Health. Media Centre. World health Organization. Retrieved on 1st December, 2013 from <http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs323/en/>
CDC (2013). Rising Health Care Costs are unsustainable. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC. Retrieved on 1st December, 2013 from <http://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/businesscase/reasons/rising.html>
H Reynolds (2009). Free medical clinics: helping indigent patients and dealing with emerging health care needs. Acad Med. 2009 Oct;84(10):1434-9. Retrieved on 1st December, 2013 from <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19881438>
