The Importance Of Having Proper Access To Healthcare

By Nikta Seyedin

In the world that we live in, it is incredibly hard to imagine life without proper access to healthcare. Yet, the healthcare system can be extremely frustrating sometimes, being absurdly expensive and hard to access even for simple check-ups. What makes the situation worse is how common it has become for people to face inequality in healthcare access.

Image By The SCDC

According to the Public Broadcasting Service, while healthcare accessibility should be a human right, in the United States alone there are about 44 million people who have no access to health insurance, and another 38 million have inadequate health insurance mostly due to its unaffordability. This indicates that nearly one-third of Americans live each day without the security of knowing whether medical care would be available to them and their families should they need it. To make matters even worse, people who are uninsured are actually likely to have even worse health conditions because they often avoid seeking medical treatment or wait until the last minute when encountering illnesses. This demonstrates how the fear of medical bills can result in a significant decrease in people’s quality of life. 

The lack of healthcare access not only affects those that are uninsured, but also everyone surrounding them. The best example would be the situation we are in right now. According to the New York Times, currently the COVID-19 pandemic has taken an alarming toll on the world, with more than 2 million lives lost as of late January 2021. Ever since the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the Center for American Progress, a huge number of individuals stated that they had cancelled upcoming appointments due to the high cost of care, inadequate or no insurance coverage and lack of availability of services. This not only places people in critical danger for themselves, but also risks the lives of others, especially during a worldwide pandemic.

Historically, it has been proven that proper access to healthcare improves overall physical, social and mental health status, improves quality of life, and decreases preventable death. However, the lack of proper healthcare access reinforces a positive feedback loop, potentially doing harm on a much larger scale. As a result, increasing access to healthcare could potentially benefit the entire population all in the long term. Furthermore, it is important to provide proper and emphatic access to healthcare for all people without discrimination as all lives are precious and deserve to be protected.