October 19, 2016

Dear Future President,

Imagine a woman frantically driving to the hospital to make sure her father is safe after his heart attack. Now imagine her father has been cast out of the hospital for is lack of health insurance. Many Americans don't have health insurance because of its high prices. And many who can’t afford it don’t qualify for financial aid. Even though most Americans have health care, millions are still without it, this can only be fixed with free health care.

Health insurance is not a new problem in America. In 1968 over 20% of Americans were uninsured, according to the article “Health Insurance Coverage Trends, 1959–2007: Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey”. We’ve come a long way from then. An estimated 20 million people have gained coverage since a health care reform was signed in 2010. But 29 million people - which is about one in ten - have still yet to gain insurance. There are many things that can be done but the best option is universal coverage for America.

29 million people are uninsured in the U.S.. The biggest factor is cost. As Lara Cooper noted in the article “Even with Obamacare 29 million people are uninsured: here's why”, “...data shows many of the uninsured can’t afford coverage, even after reforms were passed.”. This means that even after reforms were passed insurance is still too high in price. This matters because if people can’t afford insurance even after reforms have been passed then they can’t pay for health insurance. Universal healthcare is free, so everyone will be covered.

America stands alone with other developing nations that lack universal health care. In the article “Here's a Map of the Countries That Provide Universal Health Care (America's Still Not on It)” Max Fisher writes, “Nearly the entire developed world is colored, from Europe to the Asian powerhouses to South America's southern cone to the Anglophone states of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The only developed outliers are a few still-troubled Balkan states, the Soviet-style autocracy of Belarus, and the U.S. of A., the richest nation in the world.”. This is saying that the U.S. is just as bad as developing nations when it comes to health care. This is very important to know because America is the richest nation in the world and being compared to developing nations is insulting no matter how true it is. The U.S. is the riches nation in the world, but we still won't get something that over 30 countries have had for more than 20 years.

Having universal health care will help the uninsured population in many ways. It gives people that can’t afford health care the services they need, every member of the society can be able to access health care no matter what social status, and this type of health care does not discriminate against anyone, and it means less paperwork. According to Formosa Post in the article “Pros and Cons of Universal Health Care”, “With universal health care in place, doctors and other healthcare professionals can finally concentrate on treating the patient without worrying themselves with paperwork about the patient's insurance and other necessary paperwork.” This means doctors will do less paperwork. This is crucial because if doctors have less paperwork to do they will have more time to spent with their patient. This can only happen with universal coverage.

Although Universal coverage seems like a nice thing that is easy to use, but it's not. As Formosa Post states in the article “Pros and Cons of Universal Health Care”, “Universal health care often has a lot of rules and regulations that people have to follow…”. This is saying that universal health care has many rules to follow. This means that it may be kind of tricky to use at first. But rules are easy to learn and health insurance companies already have many rules that are strange and hard to follow, so universal health care shouldn't be singled out.

America may be the richest country in the world but some people are still without health care. Even though there are many options, universal healthcare for everyone is the right choice to make for America. You can be the one who keeps that woman's father in the hospital save and sound, along with 29 million other Americans .

Sincerely,

ES