Enshrining the Right to Health Care
In this paper, I will be reflecting on and evaluating the protection of the right to healthcare. Over the past years, the United States has experienced healthcare disparities ranging from geography, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and race. There have been racial disparities in mental health, health coverage, mortality, and mental health. The most affected people are the Black Americans, Latin Americans, Asian Americans, and many other Alaska and Indian citizens living in the United States. Besides, there are long-term disparities in health care systems in the United States, including health care coverage across all groups (Ndugga & Artiga, 2021). However, low-income individuals and people of color remain more vulnerable to being uninsured, leading to healthcare access barriers. Therefore, implementing the proposed right to health care services in the United States will help solve racism and ethnicity, which will help reduce health care disparities in health care systems. By focusing on improving the quality of care offered to patients, this law will help in eliminating disparities in health care. The amendment will help alleviate health care disparities through sustained and deliberate efforts to handle social health determinants like racial discrimination, environmental degradation, poverty, and segregation (Carratala & Maxwell, 2020).
The current constitution is flawed and defective since it does not adhere to the implemented laws regarding the right to health care. For instance, disparities in the United States have followed a historical pattern. The current constitution emphasizes ensuring equity in health care; hence, black Americans and other people living in the States are perceived as low-class individuals in all economic perspectives (Frist, 2015). Besides, universal health care does not exist in America, and also health care expenses are very high. The current constitution has many minor procedures that are not relevant at all.
I believe that amendment on the enshrinement of the right to health care will eliminate most of the requirements and procedures that the current constitution is practicing. Besides, focusing on social aspects such as racial discrimination and segregation will help eliminate the historical pattern of health care disparities in the United States. It will reduce the insurance cover costs, and all citizens will have easy access to health care regardless of their socioeconomic status and race.
The Black Americans, Hispanics, and low-income groups of people will benefit from this amendment. Lowering the health coverage costs will relieve them of the conformity costs they have been experiencing (Baciu et al.,2017). They will also receive the same health care services as the whites, feel part of the society and thus promote peace and unity of the nation. There is no single group that will not benefit from this amendment. This is because the whites have a privilege over the blacks and other native people, and therefore this law will work in favor of the minority groups in the United States.
To pass an amendment that protects the rights of Americans, Congress has to pass the proposed amendment by two-thirds of the majority votes by the senate and the how of representatives (Grimm, 2017). This is then sent to the states for officiating by votes of the state legislatures. The transaction costs are high as it involves a long process. It will be challenging to pass this amendment since the congress of the United States has a good number of representatives as compared to the minority in the country. Besides, the majority have the power and dominates over the minority in all aspects. Therefore, it won’t be easy to pass the amendment considering that the whites are the majority in the senate.
