Title: Is health care a right or a privilege in the United States?

Biography:

Carol Apt received her PhD in Sociology, with a concentration in medical sociology, from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and is a professor of sociology at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, USA, where she has been for the last 20 years. She teaches courses in human sexuality, medical sociology, social problems, and the sociology of genocide, a course she developed for the University. In 2011 she was honoured as the South Carolina State University Professor of the Year. As a medical sociologist, she is a consulting member of the South Carolina Medical Association Bioethics Committee. In addition to her background as an author and a newspaper and magazine columnist, she is the host of a radio talk show entitled, “Talk to Me,” which addresses issues of sexuality and relationships.

Abstract

A right is something that is guaranteed and protected by a higher authority, such as a government, whereas a privilege is a special advantage or benefit that is granted to a person, a group, or to a category of people. A privilege, therefore, is granted to some and denied to others. The right to health care, or as some would say, the right to health, is a basic human right, as codified by international human rights law by the World Health Organization (1946), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), and the World Conference on Human Rights (1993). This presentation will compare the opinions of experts in the field of health care as to whether it is a right or a privilege in the United States. Most Americans access health care through their employers; for those people health care is a right. However, since 2005 most new jobs added to the economy have been classified as part-time, temporary, or seasons, which mean that they don’t provide access to health care for employees. While the majority of Americans claim to be in favour of universal health care, the United States doesn’t have it; 44 million Americans have no health insurance and 38 million Americans are underinsured. This presentation will examine some of the arguments surrounding the controversial subject of universal health care in an attempt to understand why we don’t have it. The history of connecting access to health care through employment will also be discussed.