Should government provide equal health care for all the citizens?

　　The quality of health care a person receives should not depend on the size of their bank balance. The government is responsible for providing a high level of health care for all the citizens.

　　To what extent do agree or disagree with the above statement?

　　As more and more people have realized the importance of their quality of life, the issue of health care has received increasing public attention. In my opinion, the government should establish a high-quality health care system for all the citizens, regardless of their gender¹, occupation and social status. There are three main reasons for this as follows.

　　The first reason to be taken into account is based on the premise² that all men are created equal, which is a generally accepted belief in most countries. Just like equal pay for equal work, uniform quality and quantity of health care should be given to all citizens, who are believed to be born equal. Similarly, health care can be compared to justice, which is dispensed³ impartially⁴ by judges to all people, without reference to their social backgrounds. Therefore, everyone stands equal under the health care system that is supposed to be provided by the government.

　　In facet⁵, poor people are those who can receive the most needed benefits from a high level of health care. The poor, who are plagued by financial burdens and chronic⁶ unemployment, face especially serious heath problems. Many of them live at the subsistence level and can not afford even the fraction of the exorbitant⁷ medical costs if there is no health care for them. In contrast, the rich, with their luxurious⁸ and extravagant⁹ lifestyle and the extreme care of their private doctors, often regard the health care as a dispensable thing. Therefore, the idea that the quality of health care people receive should be in proportion to their affluence¹⁰ is totally absurd.

　　Furthermore, as most citizens are honorable taxpayers¹¹ and, therefore, make great contribution to the society, whose finances derive¹² largely from taxation¹³, good quality of health care provided by the government should be deemed as a returned favor to these taxpayers. As a matter of fact, all developed nations and many developing ones have incorporated health care into their welfare system, making it one of the fundamental human rights that are granted by the constitution. On the contrary, governments that do not attempt to address people’s health problems are rarely supported by the citizens.

　　To conclude, health care is an issue that all governments cannot afford to avoid in their day-to-day running of the country. To them, there is no alternative but to provide an excellent system of medical care for all the citizens because the scenario¹⁴ of a country full of diseased and uncared-for people is almost inconceivable.