Explain with references
Do you think that public health is a right? Why or why not?
Healthcare is a very basic need. Availing healthcare is not a luxury for people. They need healthcare to get rid of diseases and life a health life. Therefore, ensuring physical wellbeing becomes a responsibility of a state and healthcare a right of individuals. Moreover, healthcare may not be a fundamental right like right to free speech or right to association; however, given the fact that government collects taxes and a country is considerably rich, the citizens can reasonably think healthcare as a right rather than a privilege.
Low-income people are far more likely than other Americans to become obese, smoke, drink to excess and abuse drugs, in part because a healthy lifestyle is expensive, and in part because the stress of being poor and “having little control over their life” leads many to self-medicate. This is a major reason why the poor are sicker than the rest, and die prematurely of treatable conditions. Those people who put such emphasis on “individual responsibility” are saying, in effect, that low-income families should learn to take care of themselves.
Our constitutional rights make us, as individuals, free from something usually, interference by government, our neighbors, or the majority in our society. Some societies, from time to time decide that its citizens, or certain groups of them, should be entitled to certain benefits. Sometimes this [is] justified by the common good a well-educated populace serves society well, so we guarantee an education to all children. Sometimes this is derived from humanitarian principles children should not go hungry, so we create childhood nutrition programs. Healthcare should be an entitlement rather than a right. Rather than thinking of our rights as individuals, we should think collectively about what we all deserve simply by virtue of being human. These are what should be called as “human rights,” which are quite different from the constitutional rights as individual citizens.
Reference:
Braveman P., Gruskin S. Poverty, equity, human rights and health. Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 2003;81:539–545.
Should all Americans have the right to healthcare? 2012.
Retrieved from: http://www.healthcare.procon.org
Vermont Ethics Network. Is healthcare a right? 2011.
Retrieved from: http://www.vtethicsnetwork.org/healthcarerights.html
Explain with references Do you think that public health is a right? Why or why not?
Discuss why this has happened and do you think it is a success of public health policy that we are now more concerned with chronic diseases and why you think it is a success or not?
Do you think health care is a human right? Why, or why not? How can equality and inequality in health care impact society?
What do you think are important characteristics that public health nurses should possess? Discuss why you think these characeristics are important?
what antecedents (driving forces) do you think most contribute to public health leadership and why?
In this chapter, the term public health was defined. To what extent do you think that the government, at any level, has the right to legislate good health? Do you think a government body has the responsibility or right to require all motorcycle drivers to wear helmets because statistics show that wearing helmets can save lives?
how do you think leadership functions demonstrate public health skills, knowledge, and/or integrative abilities, and why?
what do you think the public health professional might do at the mesosystem level to assure an adequate water supply and why?
Of the top achievements of public health in the US, which do you think is most closely dependent upon informatics, and why?
to what extent do you think the public health professional is prepared to engage policy development skills to address public health outbreaks such as Yellow Fever, and why?
what do you think the public health professional might do to mitigate future outbreaks of SARS at the macrosystem level, and why?