American View of Health Care Access

In the United States, the underlying ideology for the health care system is said to be freedom of choice. This ideology is supposed to explain why this country does not guarantee universal access to health care. In actuality, the ideology underlying the American health care system is greed.

The reasons underlying the American approach to providing health care services are found in the national mythology of the United States. The United States is committed to a utopian view of the free market concept. In this view, individualism, property rights, rationality, selfishness, and economic competition are identified as the key characteristics of the free market concept (Shotter, 1985). The general theme of the American view of the concept is that whatever individuals want to do in an economy should not be interfered with by government, so long as the rights of others are not harmed in the process. Further, the American view of the concept holds that whatever people earn they have a right to keep (governments do not have the right to tax it away from them).

The American view of the free market concept holds that economic welfare will be generated through the selfishness of the members of the economy. The concept also holds that economic injustice will be precluded by competition within the economy (Shotter, 1985). Through such arguments as the invisible h