Access to health care is a fundamental need to every human. Nevertheless, the private sector has made medical services very expensive for many people. I believe that the harms of private health care are more significant than its benefits, and this essay delves deeper into this conundrum.
Privatization of hospitals and clinics has created competition among health care providers; consequently, driving each of them to improve their services in order to outperform their rivals. This is one of the main factors that led to the quality care we experience today. Moreover, the private sector is an alternative option for people to get the high quality care they seek, if the public services are underfunded or inadequate. The health care system in Egypt is a prime example of this, as the public hospitals usually lack the necessary infrastructure and amenities; thus, people usually choose to go to private medical institutions. However, a better solution to these problems would be to allocate a bigger fund to the public sector and to give sizable incentives to health professionals in order to work on improving themselves, and the UK health system- the NHS- is a great example of such a practice.
Medical care is a human right, and it should not be dealt with as a commodity or luxury. The rise of private health care institutions widened the gap between the rich and the poor and increased health inequality; as many people choose not to pursue medical advise because they cannot afford it. A 2019 American study has shown that poor people are three times as likely to neglect their health problems as their rich counter parts.
To sum up, while private health sector pushed different service providers to improve themselves and offered people an alternative to the low quality governmental care, it widened the gap between the rich and poor, as poor people cannot afford such high quality services.