Imagine that you are about to have a child of your own, a very happy moment for you and your significant other. As you are getting ready to leave the hospital, you are met with a bill that is millions of dollars. You lose this feeling of happiness and are now feeling anxiety, wondering how you are about to pay this bill and afford to care for a newborn child. This is the case for many parents all around the United States. Women specifically suffer the most with expensive healthcare since they must pay for things out of their control such as childbirth or even breast cancer. Not only that, but many people from all over the world come to the United States for a better life but fail to realize that the United States comes with downfalls as well, such as not providing its people free health care, leaving them very vulnerable in a new country. Therefore, expensive healthcare in the United States has negatively impacted its people while other countries around the world have free health care and people benefit from it greatly.  

When interviewing my dad, who was an illegal immigrant from Peru, he told me many ways in which the healthcare system failed him and his family. Since my dad and a lot of his family were illegal immigrants, they did not qualify for many things and were not helped when they needed it the most. My dad who struggles with major stomach problems refuses to go to the hospital as his condition gets worse because when he went, the doctors cared more about how he was going to pay for his visit then his wellbeing. Getting himself checked in took a very long time since he didn’t have certain paperwork, when he was checked they didn’t give him a solution and just dismissed it as a stomachache and owed thousands of dollars just for the visit. As years go on, my dad’s condition keeps getting worse and now cannot eat many foods because they make him incredibly sick. My dad adds that he “will never go back to the hospital because they don’t want to help people, they just want to make money from us. My dad went to the hospital and in a week of being there he died. My mom went to the hospital and in a week of being there she died. They care more about how we are going to pay, and if they know that we can’t afford it or that insurance won’t cover it they will leave you to die. I don’t trust hospitals and believe I’ll live longer by not making a visit there.” Hearing this was incredibly sad, we should all feel safe in a hospital but there are so many people who think that hospitals care more for the money then our own well-being and would rather not make a visit at all.  

In the YouTube video “The Biggest Myths About Socialism” by the channel News broke, Francheska compares a couple in France who had twins who only paid $22 dollars in hospital bills to a couple in the United States who had twins and paid 2.2 million dollars in bills. While in France, “the government covers all, or pays back at least 70%, of all healthcare costs” the United States does not think to give its people the same coverage. The American couple talk about how they went bankrupt after having twins and that “we lost everything. We paid every bill we could. We sold everything we could, we sold our car, we sold our furniture, we sold our clothing… we sold everything.” And while some might argue that France probably pays more for healthcare, France only spends 11% of gross domestic product while the United states spends 17.2% on just health care. Anyone could look at statistics and say the United States healthcare is super unfair and that if the other 32 developed countries can offer free healthcare the united states can too. 

In the article, “Expensive US Health Care Isn’t Adequate for Women, Study Finds” by Jerica Deck, an editorial intern at Global Citizen who studied journalism and communications at Hampton University talks about the expensive healthcare that makes it hard for women to go get treatment when they need it the most and why Gobal Citizens should care. Deck who is described as passionate about fighting inequality and advocates for human rights targets an audience that believes that the United States should not have free health care and who believe that giving free health care to people will negatively impact the United States rather than help people. In order to argue her points, Deck compares the United States to other countries who do have free health care and how we are falling behind. While some people believe that the United States should not have free health care, people should at least consider giving free health care to women who are affected the most health wise. Deck presents to us graphs, statistics, data, and charts to show us readers how the health of women is at risk more than others, but the United States still doesn’t provide them free health care. For example, in a statistic/ graph that Deck presents it shows us that “U.S. women are more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth and to skip care because of costs.” This is no coincidence that the United States has the most women dying of childbirth while having expensing healthcare., This brings up the question of why should women have to worry about paying so much for natural occurrences while other countries don’t?  

At the end of the day, there are many reasons as to why the United States should offer free healthcare. First, people do not feel safe enough to even go to a hospital for help. Instead, many people try to avoid hospitals so that they don’t have to worry about large expenses while not being helped at all. Second. People go to the hospital for natural occurrences or things out of their control and should not be billed for so. People should not have to worry about paying millions of dollars to give birth to a child or for getting something like cancer. If people do not want to give every citizen in the United States free health care, they should at least consider giving it to women who suffer the most health wise.  

Work Cited:  

• Deck, Jerica. “Expensive US Health Care Isn’t Adequate for Women, Study Finds.” Global Citizen, 20 Dec. 2018, www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/women-us-health-care-disparity/. 
• Florentini, Francesca. “The Biggest Myths About Socialism”. Youtube, uploaded by Newbroke, May 18, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN0HkA6APKk&t=4s. 

• Herrara, Javier. “My Dads Point of View on Healthcare in the United States.” February 26, 2021.  

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