Access To Healthcare as A Fundamental Right or Privilege?

Right to health is a government obligation to provide its citizens with necessary medical services regardless of their ability to pay. The right to health requires the state to develop policies and action plans to achieve accessible health care. Ensuring access to healthcare services is an important social responsibility; because of its socio-economic nature, demand for it often carries not only individual but also social aspects that need to be considered and requires the consolidation of consumer funds. Peculiarities of the medical market such as health risk and uncertainty, incomplete information, limited competition, external effects, production of public goods, lead to special forms of economic relations in the medical market, which requires the development of appropriate regulatory mechanisms. In countries, where an individual’s financial contribution to health care does not depend on his or her health risk, there is a principle of universal health care, which covers the entire population. Human is a higher social capital for whom health care is considered a right and not a privilege not only for humanistic and moral reasons, but also for rational, utilitarian approaches, as universal access benefits both the individual and society as it increases labor productivity.