Healthcare is a moral issue

Have you considered if healthcare is a moral issue? With recent arguments made in the Supreme Court about the constitutionality of the 2009 healthcare reform law, it is time to again consider this question. Arguments in the Supreme Court primarily revolve around the individual mandate and whether or not the Federal Government can require citizens to purchase health insurance.  While arguments made by both sides may have merit, the real issues surrounding healthcare are being ignored inside the halls of the Supreme Court and in the media.

More than an individual issue or a constitutional issue, healthcare is a moral issue.  Before we can talk about the legality of a law we have to talk about how many people in the U.S. have no health insurance coverage and how many people have limited access to the healthcare delivery system.

Before the Constitution was written the Founders of the country outlined the inalienable rights of every human being.  “Among those rights,” the Declaration of Independence states “are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” These rights are like promises to the then current generation as well as future generations.  People fought and died to insure that at least those living on this continent would have access to those rights.  However, in the U.S. states health insurance is not available or accessible to everyone.  And even though the U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other industrialized nation it ranks 27^th in life expectancy.  Americans, even though they are promised they will have be able to exercise their inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness can’t always do so because of a lack of access to affordable healthcare.  Americans as a whole lack the resources to live healthy lifestyles.

Healthcare is more than a constitutional issue.  It is more than a legal issue.  It is more than a partisan issue. Healthcare is a moral issue because the lives of those living and working in the U.S. are at stake.  We must fix our broken healthcare system now to ensure that everyone has access to affordable healthcare so they can live out the promises of Founders of this country.