The Health Care System

Is American health care a basic right or is it a privilege? I'd like to hear your points of view.

The "Con's" side of the health care professional.

1. The health care industry is a business. The bottom line is profit.
2. Taking care of people is expensive.
3. It is not the fault of Doctors, Nurses, Pharmacists, etc., that the cost of health care is rising. It is the insurance companies fault. The way items have to itemized to even collect the going rate from an Insurance company is the cause and effect.

From the "Pro's" side of the Patient.

1. Please help me my child is dying.
2. I live in America, what do you mean I'm denied.
3. I need medicine.

True Story:

A man enters a Walgreen's. He goes to the back of the store to where the pharmacy counter is located. He informs the pharmacist that he has cancer and is in terrible pain. When the pharmacist tried to calmly explain to the man that he was sorry and could do nothing for him, the cancer patient tells the pharmacist he has a gun. The gun man tells the pharmacist how he recently lost his health insurance, since his former employer obligation under COBRA had recently expired. Already thousands of dollars in debt, he could no longer get his medications. The gun man asked politely for everyone, except for the pharmacist, to leave the store. He then explained his intentions were not to harm anybody. He just needed something for the pain. When the employees made it out of the store, they swiftly called 911. In the meantime, the man demanded Oxycontin and Lorazepam. Two common medications used in cancer hospice care. Oxycontin is for pain and Lorazepam is for anxiety. It supposedly helps to calm the nerves after a dose of chemotherapy. The pharmacist supplied the man with his demands and was released by the gun man.

After a 15 minute stand off with Columbia police, the man stopped pointing the gun at his head and the police gave him some room to relax. The police watched the man take the necessary amount of drugs, allowed by the prescription for his condition. Once the man became more subdued and clearly out of pain, the police immediately placed him in the ambulance to be taken to the hospital. The man ended up in the Intensive Care Unit. Where the news then said he was in critical condition. He's dying from cancer. Apparently, this man's only remaining option, was to become a ward of the county and state as an inmate, in order that to live out the rest of his days, without unbearable and horrific pain. Now, you tell me because I want to know, should health care be a right or a privilege in America? Is this what you would want for a love one of yours or perhaps even you to go through?

I am not sure where I stand on this issue. Maybe I'm not wise enough to contemplate all the outcomes. My heart conflicts with the practical side of my mind. How can anyone let this man suffer? Why should he have to commit a crime to get the painkillers he needed? Is this what America stands for, and has broken down too? What can be done or should anything be done to fix this system? Your thoughts.

The Statistics

• Should all Americans have the right (be entitled) to health care? - Right to Health Care - ProCon.or
  Should all Americans have the right (be entitled) to health care? Read pros, cons, and expert responses in the debate.