Health care should be available for everyone

Erick Echegaray, Opinions Editor

Recently elected Representative Roger Marshall (R-KS) is part of a group of doctors leading the way to replace the Affordable Care Act with a new health care plan. Marshall, an ex-physician, is against the idea of a universal health care system. While being interviewed by STAT, a website focused on health care, Marshall spoke about religion, health care and why the poor don’t need health care.       

“Just like Jesus said the poor will always be with us,” Marshall said. “There is a group of people who just don’t want health care and aren’t going to take care of themselves,”

The Mentor Editorial board concluded that his judgements were both insulting and hypocritical regarding health care and the people it should serve.

Marshall, being a representative of the people of Kansas, attacks and generalizes an entire group of people. His belief is that if someone is poor they are less likely to take care of themselves, meaning they don’t want healthcare. This belief is a betrayal from a representative to the people who got him there. While not all of his voters might have been part of the working class or living below the poverty line, he still represents the first district of Kansas. Marshall is mistaken if he believes such insulting beliefs will help bring people around the idea of a new health care system. His comments have already backfired on him publicly.

His use of religion in those comments are also under scrutiny. Marshall, alluding to Jesus in his comments, provoked religious individuals to argue that the Bible says the complete opposite about helping the poor. When it comes to health, compassion and camaraderie should be practiced, not the opposite which disregards people of a different economic standing than yourself.

Health care should be a right of all people; a human right which should break all barriers of class or race. It’s also too important to people for it to be messed around with; people lose their lives everyday because health care is not available to them. It’s important for young people as well. It becomes part of our necessities and responsibilities when we leave home and live alone.

Regarding the bigger picture, Marshall’s comments are not the only negative publicity the new Republican healthcare plan has received. It has been reported that the plan will not require coverage for substance abuse and mental health disorders; coincidentally a factor which mostly impacts working class and working poor Americans. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 1.3 million people receive treatment for mental health and substance abuse. The new proposed healthcare plan would give the states the choice to provide that coverage, ultimately leaving some people off when they can’t pay for their needs.