July 21, 2009

• Universal Health Care

  I have a few thoughts on universal health care in the U.S. so I thought I’d write them down.
  I think the first question we have to ask is:  Is health care a right?  Access to health care would be a positive right, meaning somebody has an obligation to provide it for me.  I’ve read a lot of arguments for health care being a right and don’t find them convincing.  So my position is this:  Access to health care isn’t a right, but IS right.  It is something we as a nation should provide.
  When the person who serves me at a restaurant gets an upper respiratory infection, am I so heartless that I think he should not be able to see a doctor because his employer doesn’t provide health insurance? (Is it better he just coughs all over my food)?  When the driver of the carriage providing tours through Charleston breaks a leg, should he just have to hobble along because the company can’t afford to provide health insurance?  If the person unlucky enough to be in an accident that causes severe burns, and yet has insurance, be required to lose his house because the insurance ran out?
  I think very few in the U.S. are so cold-hearted they would answer yes to these questions.  We want to see these people cared for.  So how do we do it?  That’s where it gets complex (and probably really  boring for the next few entries).

  • 7:09 pm
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