Health Care: Patient Rights

Health care is a polarizing topic in American life. While all other developed nations recognize basic health care as (to at least some degree) a human right, opinions in America range from health care as a responsibility (i.e., rationed health care; that is, provided only to those who can financially afford it) to health care as a basic human right (i.e., health care as equally accessible to all persons, regardless of income or other disparities). 

Health care rationed on the basis of financial status - the current position of the entire Republican Party and Tea Party movements - does not recognize patient rights. Congressional Republicans in 2009 voted unanimously against the elimination of health care rationing on the basis of wealth, the central tenet of health care reform. That 35,000,000 (and counting) Americans do not have access to free market-rationed health insurance is of little concern to those who oppose patient rights. This line of thinking places the blame on the poor (and middle class) for not having enough money to purchase insurance from the largely monopolistic free market health care companies.

On the other hand, many Americans - as well as most citizens of the remaining developed nations in the world - are opposed to wealth-based rationed health care, and for patient rights. For these individuals, there is a moral imperative in health care: human life is more valuable than corporate profits.

Patient Rights: A Primer

The American Medical Association and many other medical and health care advocacy groups support patient rights. The American Cancer Society and many other organizations operate according to a Patients Bill of Rights. And the current health care reform debate is, at a fundamental level, a dialogue over the right of citizens to basic health care. See links below for more information about how the medical community understands patients rights, and the moral imperative of basic health care.

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American Medical Association
U.S. Patients' Bill of Rights (Wikipedia)
Health Reform News (New York Times)
Ethics and the Health Care System

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