The Right to Medical Assistance (Essay Example)

Unproductive medical assistance is just as effective as unprovided medical assistance. It isn’t. In the 1930s novella, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, the prominent human rights issue was the lack of medical care for disabled people. Today, health maintenance and assistance to individuals with special needs have become a vital priority to society. However, when subpar medical ministrations are received, it results in deleterious effects to the common good of the people, taking a form of the dilemma presented almost a century ago. John Steinbeck’s novella demonstrates the damages of inadequate proper medicinal treatment for disabled people, which serves as a worldwide foundation of the outcomes of inaccessible, expensive, and substandard medical assistance that can be examined in such places as the United States and Malawi. 

In Of Mice and Men, the author expresses the human rights issue through the characters, Lennie and Candy. Lennie, a protagonist of the story, cannot act nor think on his own. His forgetfulness and innocence gets him into trouble. The novella constantly describes him as dumb because he doesn’t function like everyone else. The novella was written in the 1930s when people were insensitive towards people with disabilities. Therefore, there wasn’t much support or treatment for these people. Lennie relied on his friend, George, as his caregiver in a world that didn’t care about him. Candy is a swamper, who lost his hand in his previous occupation on a ranch. He is referred to as weak and useless because of his physical disability. Because he can’t play an active role on the ranch, he fears he will be fired, making it impossible for him to obtain another job and earn money. This brings significance as to why job opportunities are conjoined to medical assistance. According to an article written by Michael Ulrich, "Expanding employment options for the disabled is important not only monetarily, but also to enhance their ability to live independently and interact with their social environment." Occupational opportunities are a necessary component of medical assistance. Because of a person’s special needs, they are limited to certain lines of work. Candy deserved the right to financial security by having job positions to apply for, where his disability wasn’t an obstruction to work or pay.

Unlike the era in Of Mice and Men, the United States offers medical care, known as healthcare. However, it is high-priced and unaffordable for citizens with lower incomes. In the Harvard Health article,  “Is our healthcare system broken?” by Robert Shmerling, it states that "The current US healthcare system has a cruel tendency to delay or deny high-quality care to those who are most in need of it but can least afford its high cost." This is extremely inimical to people with disabilities. Health care is considered expensive for the average citizen, but a disabled person has an average annual cost almost five times more($13,492) than the cost for an able-bodied person($2,835). Furthermore, it is inhumane to hinder these people from obtaining services because they can’t pay the hefty price of medical treatment to save or better their lives. Shmerling goes on to say that "Despite spending far more on healthcare than other high-income nations, the US scores poorly on many key health measures..." To elaborate, the United States spends over four trillion dollars on healthcare, yet it still fails to produce satisfactory health care. Ironically, disabled people receive high medical bills, instead of high-quality services. 

Although advances towards health care have been made overtime, Malawi is known for its limited access to healthcare. In a BMC Public Health article, Ruth, a woman with a hearing impairment, says that health facilities in Malawi “have very big problems, because drugs are rarely found in the hospitals.” The country does not have the medicines to treat patients. Since drugs are not even available for able-bodied people, there is a low chance of a disabled person obtaining medicines, terminating the possibility of their condition improving. Liliana, a woman with a mobility impairment, says, “I would really be very grateful if [...] there was a provision for running tests in my chest so that they would be able to find out what really is my problem, and then they could tell me what is really wrong with me so that I would be given proper medication, instead of working on assumptions.”  Malawi is an underdeveloped country and is one of the poorest countries in the world. Therefore, it is not technologically advanced. They wouldn’t have the medical technologies used to make diagnoses and treat illnesses, disorders, and impairments. Unfortunately, disabled people suffer the most from this because they don’t have the technological efficiencies to examine and aid their disabilities. 

Ultimately, the meager medical assistance for people with disabilities shown in Of Mice and Men still exists today. Medical care is either inaccessible or below mediocre as a result of poor societal values, financial issues, or lack of information, supplies, and technology. No matter the time period or place, this human rights issue was present and deprived people of a healthy, fulfilling life. Moreover, disabled people are well-deserving of proper care and need others to support them on this matter. As a humane individual, it is important to speak out and take action on this issue, or it will inevitably get worse.