James S.

Dayrit, RPh (Registered Pharmacist)

Philippines

What are the advantages and disadvantages of free healthcare?

Having free healthcare does have its pros and cons. Let us start with the major problem
that most of the third world countries are experiencing—which is lack of access to proper
healthcare. With free healthcare, people that are not so fortunate enough to afford to pay for
their medicines, medical check-ups and diagnostic exams and will have their health checked
and monitored, preventing the occurrence of health issues, and treating their underlying
illnesses, thus improving their quality of life. In line with this, there will be a boost in the
economy because people have now access to healthcare which helps them to take care of their
health, ultimately leading to very significant increase of productivity. It also eliminates the high
costs of healthcare and unnecessary competition between health service providers where they
only target those wealthy people that can afford their services and ignoring those people that
are unfortunate, regardless of their health condition.
We cannot also ignore the fact that healthcare had become a business for some people
and so, one of the disadvantages of free healthcare is that those that are providing these free
healthcare services (which in this case, the government) will have their budget taken off
remarkably because healthcare is quite expensive. Having free healthcare will definitely make
people irresponsible, especially with their health because they will tend to take it for granted
knowing these services are “free” and easy to access with. Rather than focusing on being fit and
healthy, people will start to have an unhealthy lifestyle and might cause detrimental health
effects. If that happens, hospital and clinics will be busier than ever that it would take days or
weeks just to have an appointment or to be checked by a doctor, which can lead to a reduced
quality of service because healthcare providers might have their goals changed by attending to
many patients as much as possible rather than diagnosing them properly.
In conclusion, free healthcare would have a very significant impact to the society. It can
either do good or bad based on how people will utilize it. Nevertheless, it is a basic right of a
person to have access to healthcare. We cannot also ignore the fact that having these free
services would drastically reduce the quality of health services and make people less concerned
about their health.

References:

Napit, R. (2020, March 16). 11 Pros and Cons of Free Healthcare. Honest Pros and Cons.
https://honestproscons.com/pros-and-cons-of-free-healthcare/