Writer's Block: Health Care

[pameladlloyd]

[Error: unknown template qotd]

Morally, I see health care as a right. Practically, I see good universal health care as just plain sensible policy.

Morally

How can we defend withholding medical care from individuals, including infants and children, on the basis that they, or their families, lack wealth?

I tried to find more to say on this matter, but it seems to me that there's not really anything more to say. It just doesn't seem morally defensible to me that some people can have access to health care when they need it and others can't.

Practically

When good health is a privilege, it hurts more than a few individuals, it hurts our entire society. We need a healthy populace:

	1)	Poor health policies cost money in the form of increased health care costs . . . assuming, of course, that we don't leave those members of our society who can't affort preventative health care to live or die, when their illnesses are of a life-threatening nature. The old saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," is exactly right.
	2)	Poor health policies cost money in the form of lost productivity. People who are sick simply can't work at peak levels, if they can work at all. If our society continues to make choices that make health care more expensive and less available, it will mean a loss of productivity for our entire nation.
	3)	Poor health policies will make our country less competitive, as workers flee to countries where they can get better health care. Think we've got an immigration problem? Wait until Americans are the ones crossing the borders in record numbers, as they head for countries with more humane health care policies.
	4)	Poor health policies hurt us all. The health of the individual members of a community will have an impact on the overall health of the community. At the most extreme level, poor health policies can result in plagues which, while they may disproportionately target the poor, will bring illness to people at every level of society.

 

ETA: I just conducted a search using the following term "McCain Obama health care policy comparison" and then checked each of the top five results. (The third had a main link to another search page, so I picked the top entry listed.)

This gave me the following pages to peruse:
Health Care Policies Of Obama And McCain - UMB Healthcare Services' Dennis Triplett Provides A "Real-World" Comparison
Health Care: John McCain vs Barack Obama
Obama Takes On McCain's Health-Care Prescription
Obama health plan outperforms McCain plan in coverage and efficiency
Obama vs. McCain health care policies

Some of these articles favor one candidate or the other, while some seem to be attempting as objective an analysis of the plans as can be managed. It all makes for interesting reading, regardless of which candidate you favor.

Comments

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

It's an important issue. I don't usually respond to the Writer's Block questions, but this one hit rather closer to home than most.

[owl]

Yeah, this is the first time I've ever responded to a Writer's Block question. But universal health care is something I feel strongly about. (Then, by US standards I'm fiscally a socialist...)

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Ah, but by US standards, so much of the free world is seen as socialist.

Last night my husband and I were talking and he commented that socialism may be toxic (as may occur if the CEOs get millions from the bailout) or may be of benefit to a society (as when a country has universal health care). Which reminds me a bit of an idea I came across many years ago, which stated that in an ideal world in which people always acted in the best interests of all, it wouldn't matter which governmental structure was chosen, because they'd all work for everybody. But, in the imperfect world we live in, democracy seems to be the best chance for a society with a few basic freedoms.

Now, if we'd just give true democracy a try.

[owl]

What your husband said reminded me of something I heard after the Fannie and Freddie takeover: the US is practising a unique political experiment: socialism for certain corporations and private enterprise for individuals.

Yes, by European standards I'm a moderate social democrat. I believe that private enterprise is good, but it should be regulated so that we don't end up in the current mess, and that the rich should be taxed hard for the good of everyone else.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

I agree wholeheartedly.