The State of Healthcare in the United States

This issue of Human Rights focuses on health and health rights, highlighting some of the extreme disparities that exist for millions of people living in the United States due to the lack of health care and health rights and making some recommendations for what we can do. As these articles point out, in contrast to many other countries, the United States does not recognize a constitutional or legal right to health or health care (unless you are in prison). This does not mean, however, that there are not laws that establish some rights to health coverage.

The oft-repeated phrase, facts matter, applies here. This issue’s authors offer a parade of facts:

From Khiara M. Bridges: People of color are less likely to be given appropriate cardiac care, receive kidney dialysis or transplants, or receive the best treatments for stroke, cancer, or AIDS.
From Mary Smith: Funding of the Indian Health Service would need to nearly double to match the level of care provided to federal prisoners.
From Erika Ziller and Andrew Coburn: The mortality rate for rural working-class whites is rising, driven by “despair deaths” from suicide, liver disease, and accidental poisoning, in particular from opioid and other drug overdoses.
From Gretchen Borchelt: Women need more health care but are more likely to be poor and routinely forgo needed care or struggle with medical debts.
What has been happening to address disparities such as these? The articles identify three notable changes over the last 10 years. First, the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—the most significant advancement toward universal health coverage in the United States since passage of Medicare and Medicaid over 50 years ago.