Health Care

Patricia Alessi

Everyone has the right to health. Yet, as I have discovered, this statement is not always true. During this semester, after I attended a healthcare talk held at the Carrboro City Hall, I worked on trying to understand the current healthcare system situation that exists in our country. My findings revealed that we have much work to do in achieving universal healthcare in the United States. While our federal government is severely stalling on this situation—mainly because privatized healthcare is a multi-billion dollar industry that is putting the pressure on the government to stay in business—several states have started to take up the “right to healthcare” fight. Indeed, Massachusetts has set up a healthcare system in which those who do not have healthcare will be provided it by the state. Moreover, as seen by Canada and England, it is possible for a country to offer its citizens universal healthcare. Nevertheless, the United States is still the only industrialized country that does not guarantee this right to health.

North Carolina is finally joining the fight for healthcare for its residents with a bill that they are trying to amend to the North Carolina Constitution. This bill would state that healthcare is a human right. Yet, while this is a good start, more needs to be done. We need to not only state that healthcare is a human right, but also actually provide it. Therefore, through several suggestions in my final written report, I believe that North Carolina can begin to offer this right to its residents. Moreover, North Carolina needs to join other states that believe in healthcare as a right to start to demand it from our government. In the worst-case scenario, universal healthcare will have to happen state-by-state. Yet, my optimistic side believes that somehow we will be able to put enough pressure on the federal government for it finally to take social responsibility for all of its residents.