Universal health coverage means providing access to quality health care services to all
people without exposing them to financial hardships. According to the World Health
Organization, universal health care coverage means a situation where all individuals and
communities in a county receive quality health services without exposing them to financial
hardships (WHO, 2020). Some of the services that are covered by health insurance include health
promotion and prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care (WHO, 2020). Between
2014 and 2019, all citizens of the United States needed to have a health insurance cover (Collins,
Bhupal, and Doty, 2019). If an American citizen did not purchase the insurance cover, he or she
would pay a penalty of 2.5 percent of their yearly household income (Medical Billing and
Coding Certification, 2020). This is irrespective of whether the payer was in perfect health or he
goes to the hospital on occasion. This paper attempts to answer the question, if I am perfectly
healthy and never go to the hospital, why would I pay for something that I have yet to use?

The main reason why countries provide residents with health care coverage is to avoid
the risk of sliding into poverty (WHO, 2020). In other words, without health care coverage
patients are often forced to use up all their savings, sell assets, or get in debt, which jeopardizes
the future of their children. According to Vaden Health Services (2020), getting a health care
coverage plan not free as residents are required to pay an upfront premium to a health insurance
company. It is seen as a contract between a health insurance company and an individual payer.
The individual pays a monthly or an annual fee to the health insurance company so that the latter
is obliged to cater for financial needs of the later if he falls ill. In the united states, there are two
types of health insurance, namely public or taxpayer-funded and private-funded (Sohn & Jung, 2016). A private health insurance plan is provided by an employer while public health insurance
is provided by the government or non-profit agencies.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in 2010 and aimed at making health
care coverage more affordable to all people living in the United States (Luo, 2019). This is
because the ACA provided tax subsidies and expanded the Medicaid eligibility to cover low-
income earners in the country. Between 2014 when the ACA was implemented and before
January 1, 2019, several amendments took place, and as a result, health insurance was no longer
mandatory at the federal level. Only four states have made it mandatory for people to have
insurance coverage in the country, including California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and
Vermont (HealthSherpa, 2020). Other states such as Washington DC, Hawaii, Maryland, and
Rhode Island are in the process of enacting regulations that make it mandatory for people living
in the states to purchase health insurance. APA