Should Governments Provide Free Healthcare to All Citizens?

Running head: ESSAY
Should governments be obliged to ensure that free, accessible healthcare is available to all
citizens, irrespective of age or health status?
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Author Note

ESSAY1
Introduction- Healthcare is extremely essential to build the environment. It is an
umbrella term that refers to the improvement and maintenance of health through the effective
diagnosis, prevention, and management of injury, illness, mental or physical impairment.
People might not be able to cover their expenses to pay doctors or nurses, who are providing
them assistance in their health, owing to their financial situation (Siekman & Hilger, 2018).
Time and again access to healthcare has been found to fluctuate across different nations and
communities and are largely influenced by economic and social conditions of the people, in
addition to the existing health policies of the individual states (Goodman et al., 2017).
Furthermore, poorer people also require free healthcare and it is the duty of the government
to provide it. This essay will argue that healthcare has to be free and accessible to all people,
regardless of their health status. The essay will initially provide background information on
the underlying factors that make it necessary to create provisions for free healthcare services.
In the succeeding sections, the essay will illustrate why healthcare needs to be free, why
should healthcare be paid, and what the key recommendations are for making health services
accessible and free for all citizens.
Background- There are several reasons for healthcare to be free. The strategic aim of
free healthcare facilities and amenities is to guarantee that all people can utilise the health
services that are present, without any potential risk of monetary ruin or impoverishment,
notwithstanding their socio-economic condition. Free and easily accessible healthcare service
also help in the elimination of official user fees that are generally procured from the patients
at the time of service, for a range of illnesses (Masiye, Kaonga & Kirigia, 2016).
Furthermore, with several people all around the world being uninsured, it has been found that
numerous people die each year, due to lack of access to healthcare facilities, owing to high
costs. In other words, presence of free healthcare services is also imperative since it would
guarantee that all people are able to gain access to necessary diagnostic tools, medications

ESSAY2
and curative procedures. This in turn is supported by Simonsen, Hertzum and Scheuer (2018)
who stated that the domain of healthcare is extremely complex, highly specialised, and
subjected to huge technology investments. Thus, with the aim of improving the health and
wellbeing of patients, there is a need for all government to make healthcare services free and
accessible. The term greater inequality in health and social care, does not necessarily refer to
poverty. Poverty and poor health status do often go hand-in-hand. Nonetheless, evidences
from epidemiological research suggest that great levels of inequality are responsible for a
negative impact on the health outcomes of even the prosperous, predominantly because,
disparity decreases social unity, a dynamic that results in the onset of more fear, stress, and
insecurity for every person.
Healthcare has to be free- Presence of free healthcare can exert an amazing control
over health of all citizens across the globe. There is mounting evidence for the fact that poor
socioeconomic status (SES) creates an impact on the health outcomes, by governing the
extent and type of healthcare services that people receive. It has often been reported that in
developing and underdeveloped nations, people belonging to low SES demonstrate an
increased likelihood of developing worsened health outcomes, reduced life expectancy, and
generally suffer from a plethora of chronic diseases, in comparison to their higher SES
counterparts (Adeyanju, Tubeuf & Ensor, 2017). Furthermore, they are also subjected to less
number of diagnostic tests and medicines for several illnesses and injuries, owing to the
limited access that they have to health services due to low coverage and high costs. It has
been supported by Smedley, Stith, Nelson, Board on Health Sciences Policy, Institute of
Medicine and Committee on Understanding and Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in
Health Care (2014) that Somalia is one of the poorest nations, and also demonstrates a
deterioration in health status of its residents, comparable to other nations like Sudan, Nigeria,
and Liberia. Furthermore, the researchers also elaborated on the fact that resident healthcare