What do Hospitals and millionaires have in common? They both overcharge everything they make because they can and are greedy. The healthcare system in the United States is broken, overcharging patients for simple procedures/ check ups, increasing prices on necessary medicine, giving little to no aid to those without insurance, and hurting the poor. Those in the middle class and above might not have dealt with such hardships, but the impoverished deal with this by either denying healthcare or dealing with an abundance of debt looming over their heads. There should be free healthcare for all and it should be paid for by raising taxes on the rich by 2%. The rich can contribute their fair share to fund free healthcare, it helps the attack on the poor, and it boosts U.S. leadership.

Rich people have a benefit that most Americans don’t have, which is not worrying about simple necessities in everyday lives. While they flex their new sports cars, multi-million dollar houses, yachts, and power, poor people are struggling to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. A lot of this is because of the healthcare system and how broken it is. Healthcare company’s that deal with medical procedures, selling medicine, and hospitality automatically assume that people have health insurance, so they overpriced everything because, in most cases, the insurance company will pay for it. But what the healthcare company’s fail to recognize is that even with a bunch of programs and medicaid/ medicare, there are still a lot of Americans who can’t afford basic healthcare that ends up with bad health and a bunch of debt. While it would be nice to have these businesses to stop overpricing, it’s simply unrealistic. So what’s the solution? Taxing the rich by 2%. An Article from Newsweek says that “the best bet for real reform would come from across-the-board-legislation that increases taxes on the very wealthy in order to pay for tax relief for the poor and middle classes” (Evan 38-40). Taxing the rich to make healthcare free for all citizens, regardless of class status, will help fight debt. The crazy thing is, that this won’t even bother the rich. A Newsweek magazine reports that Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world, attended Hilary Clinton’s fundraiser in New York and highlighted how the system was broken because rich people pay lower taxes than the receptionists and cleaning ladies (Evan). Not only this, but rich people are trying to cheat the system by changing their residency to Texas, which doesn’t have state taxes. Billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have made this decision while low-income workers are forced to pay higher taxes while trying to maintain healthcare.

Taxing the rich not only funds Americans the proper amount of money to have proper healthcare, but it helps ensure that future citizens will not have to worry about medical debt. Yes, there is still debt and taxing the rich to fund healthcare for all is not going to solve the current problem, but ultimately it’s going to prevent it from occurring again. According to TIME magazine, “It’s got to be Medicare for All”, Barksan, a citizen that has been attacked by the healthcare system,  ”Only a truly ambitious, radical departure from the status quo that replaces the exploitative for-profit-model with one that guarantees health care as a right for all will fix the problem” (Abrams ).  Low income have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic which led to millions of jobs being lost which means all benefits from these companies didn’t remain for those who were laid off. TIME magazine notes that the healthcare system is not working because those who lost their jobs to the pandemic lost stable income and affordability to health care, which makes people avoid medical care because it costs so much () Taxing the rich for medicare for all will stop any further scenarios, such as COVID-19 pandemic, from occurring and doing tremendous harm to citizens’ health.

When talking about the United States, the first thing that comes to most Americans is freedom, yet several Americans still ignore the problem from the healthcare system. How can this country be established as ‘free’ when the system sets up poor people to fail and get trapped in a never ending cycle of debt just to take care of themselves. That’s why free healthcare for all is important and needs to happen, it’s the morally right thing to do and helps the poor. The average middle class citizen would not have to pay a single cent more than what they already do and everyone can have free and equal health access. Not only is it morally right, but it boosts U.S. leadership across the globe. It really promotes the idea of freedom and justice because the poor and less fortunate will have stable medicare. Other countries will see the Americas leadership and model after it, having a positive effect on the world.

There is a trifling concern about free healthcare for all because the system is not built for everyone to be taken care of and it would be insufficient. This includes long waiting periods, not enough hospital space, and no guarantee whether or not that patient will receive proper treatment. But, even if the system is insufficient, that is something that America can fix during the transition to free healthcare. The United States shouldn’t just stand around waiting for more families to be destroyed because of financial debt and wait for more Americans to die because they don’t have insurance. Just because there are some flaws it’s not a reason to not implement this type of program.

America’s healthcare system is broken and there needs to be something done about it. Luckily, there are solutions by taxing the rich by 2% to be able to afford health care for all. This won’t affect the rich in any significant way, it will prevent any future medical debt, and it boosts U.S leadership across the globe.

Works Cited

Thomas, Evan, et al. “Taxing the Super Rich.” Newsweek, vol. 150, no. 4, July 2007, pp. 38–40,web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=b6a52dba-11d9-4f74-a81a-63b6e8f3fee6%40redis&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVybCxnZW8sY3BpZCx1aWQmY3VzdGlkPWthbnNhcyZnZW9jdXN0aWQ9a2Fuc2FzJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl ZQ%3d%3d.

Abrams, Abigail. “For Organizer Ady Barkan, COVID-19 Is yet Another Reason to Pass Medicare for All.” TIME Magazine, vol. 195, no. 12/13, Apr. 2020, pp. 18–19, web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=c232beb7-d8ad-4043-98d2-b2aab5ea7704%40redis&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVybCxnZW8sY3BpZCx1aWQmY3VzdGlkPWthbnNhcyZnZW9jdXN0aWQ9a2Fuc2FzJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=142419569&db=aph.