Essay Example on The 2016 election cycle the board members of the Amnesty International Club

During the 2016 election cycle the board members of the Amnesty International Club AIC scoured newspapers everyday to develop topics for discussion at our weekly meetings There are many great things about America and I as the son of immigrants can attest to them all but as member of our AIC board I became increasingly aware of many injustices existing in our society as a whole as well as in our local communities Healthcare is one of the most egregious areas of unfairness I watch as my mother pays 200 for an Epi Pen that could save my life in a dangerous situation I see friends and my own extended family members losing their homes because of medical bills The state of our healthcare system affects everyone in the country Everywhere I look Twitter television at school at the gym I hear people arguing over how problems in our healthcare system should be solved So here are my two cents on this debate I believe three basic principles of any healthcare system should be considered paramount First every person should have guaranteed access to quality healthcare because I consider healthcare a right not a privilege Second a healthcare system must provide healthcare for everyone in the most cost effective way possible

And lastly the first priority in healthcare should be disease prevention as opposed to disease treatment The current U S healthcare system fails to uphold these basic principles America is the wealthiest nation in the world and yet millions of her citizens lack access to healthcare because they cannot afford health insurance When my cousin twisted her ankle for example she asked first responders if she could take an Uber instead of an ambulance because her insurance doesn't completely reimburse transportation When my neighbor had several back surgeries to alleviate pain related to his prostate cancer an insurance company denied his claim saying it was not medically necessary Over 45 000 Americans die every year because they cannot see a doctor when they need to And yet compared to other industrialized counterparts we still spend almost twice as much per person on healthcare This is due in large part to the inefficient and profit driven bureaucracy endemic in our healthcare structure Lastly and what I think is most concerning for public health in the long term is the gap between the number of primary care providers available to patients and what is needed to deliver quality care to all citizens Because primary care is critical to early detection and monitoring of chronic health conditions this gap is especially problematic In my opinion this situation largely stems from our financing model the multi payer insurance system In this framework hundreds of private insurance companies compete to provide an individual s coverage The drawback to this system is the need for insurance companies to provide profit to shareholders which runs counter to the need for access to quality healthcare