To summarize the main points of this presentation, for a variety of reasons the United States should have universal healthcare that would provide free services to every citizen in the country. Every one of the industrialized countries all over the globe have some form of free healthcare, including many countries that are notoriously lacking in human rights such as Canada and Germany. The United States, which considers itself to be a leader in human rights, a beacon that guarantees life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness according to its constitution, seems hypocritical when one considers that it does not provide free health care to its citizens.
Many lives in the United States would be saved if universal health care was available to all, and people would be more likely to receive the care that they require, no more and no less. In countries that have healthcare systems that are centralized by the government, there is a great deal of cost containment; in contrast, the unregulated aspect of the United States healthcare system results in a for-profit motive for corporations that are involved in providing healthcare. Because of the incentive to save as much money as possible, the American public is shortchanged because decisions about their care are made based not necessarily on medical needs but are rather determined by the need to minimize costs. If one considers the constitutional guarantee of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that would appear to include such essential services as healthcare. In that sense, the lack of universal healthcare coverage violates the constitutional rights given by the Founding Fathers. Americans, like most other people in the world, have the right to universal healthcare to guarantee an enhanced quality of life for all.. It is extremely ironic that the United States, considered by many to be the leader of the free world, lags so far behind in such an essential human right.