Health care

On page 228 of Economix, author Michael Goodwin discusses health care and its role in the economy. He discusses how in the 1990s, private insurers began to shift their focus from serving their customers to serving Wall Street, as the pressure to produce profits was high. These insurers would turn down those in need of health care and deny claims, both extremely effective ways of making money. Government policies to fix this were proposed by the Clinton administration but got shot down by Congress. Many of these problems have since remained, although the Affordable Care Act was Obama's attempt to resolve these issues.

Health insurance has never been something that I personally have had to worry about. For one thing, I've never had any major health issues and the worst injuries I've ever dealt with were a sprained ankle and a cut above my lip that required three stitches. My mom always receives extensive health coverage through her work (she's a nurse) so any health problem has been essentially fully covered. But it truly blows my mind that this is a for-profit industry. Every industrialized, first-world country out there besides this one offers universal health care. The people in these countries don't have to worry about how they'll pay for their surgeries, their appointments, their emergency room visits. They don't have to let their health issues linger and ruin, hell, take their lives because they can't afford to pay to get better. The Constitution, as outdated as it is, gives us the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which are rights that I believe will never be outdated. If I can't afford health care, my life can end much sooner than it should, and while it's not entirely black and white, the right to health care clearly shouldn't lie in the hands of Wall Street.