Please help reply to this discussion post.

Starr's "policy trap" describes the problem associated with the fact that health insurance in the United States is tied to employment. This is because wages were prevented from increasing during World War II, so employers provided benefits of health insurance instead. Employee contributions to employer-sponsored health insurance premiums were non-taxable. The trap is that the current setup is maintained because it "works" for so many people. It is a trap, according to Starr, because this current setup will be difficult to change in any efforts for healthcare reform. This is the reason that health insurance through employers continues to this day.

I believe that in the United States, access to basic healthcare is a right, as it falls under basic right to freedom. In this case, it is the freedom to access medical evaluation and treatment. The U.S. Healthcare system supports this right by the statutes in place that prevent hospitals from refusing to provide treatment based on a patient's inability to pay. For example, I work in an emergency department. We are required to provide and evaluation and medical stabilization for anyone who presents to the facility. If healthcare is a fundamental right for all in the United States, there is a role of the federal government in ensuring everyone in the country can access this right. With 50 states, it would be challenging for each state to independently administer and oversee its own healthcare system. The states vary widely in their access to funding and other resources within the state. Placing states in charge of healthcare access would lead to residents of certain states lacking access to basic healthcare.