Current Landscape

In the US, healthcare is not considered a right.

According to the American Bar Association, The United States does not specifically include the right to healthcare in its Constitution, although many Nations do. As a result, we have a mix of private/public healthcare.

Private/Public Healthcare History

The mix of Private/Public was successful at expanding coverage, but price increases forced 50 million Americans to be without health insurance by 2009. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in 2010 and addressed issues like cost and quality of care, expanded Medicaid, and created consumer protections for private insurance providers. By 2016 the number of uninsured Americans dropped to 28 million, and remains at 27.1 million (8.2%) as of 2024. It appears the ACA did what it set out to do, but is by no means a viable long term solution.

As described by the World Health Organization (WHO), every human being deserves access to adequate healthcare. This includes the right to control one’s health, informed consent, bodily integrity, participation in health-related decision-making, and freedom from torture, ill-treatment, and harmful practices.

The Ninth Amendment of the US Constitution states:

“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people,”

The Ninth Amendment means that the rights explicitly listed in the Constitution are not the only rights people are entitled to. One could argue that although it is not listed, healthcare is a human right. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights published by the United Nations provided: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being…including…medical care” and International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (signed by the US in 1977) stated that it is “the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health” in addition to: “the creation of conditions which would assure to all medical service.” Additionally, the ICESCR outlines that “Recognizing that these rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person, Recognizing that, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his economic, social and cultural rights, as well as his civil and political rights.

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