Do You Have a Right to Good Health, Wellness, and Wellbeing?

Good health, wellness, and wellbeing are absolutely your right.

Photo by Hush Naidoo Jade Photography on Unsplash

I have health insurance. And I am deeply, deeply grateful for this fact.

Yet even with the coverage that I have — I still have some health care bills to pay. And they are not cheap.

None of them are for elective surgery, cosmetic surgery, or some other chosen, not entirely necessary matter. All of them are what my insurance won’t cover for tests and appointments that the bean-counters will only pay so much of.

And what about mental health? Insurance tends to get weird about covering seeing a therapist, or like treatment. They might cover some or a limited number of appointments — but you tend to need to have really good insurance for that.

You read about ongoing stories of people going broke and declaring bankruptcy — particularly in the United States — to cover medical expenses. Unless you are wealthy — and have the best, most costly coverage available — you will have medical bills for anything above and beyond basic wellness.

There is a clear message in American health care in particular that if you are not of a certain class and/or income bracket — maybe you should avoid doctors and medical treatments. Or be…