Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Health Care is a Right vs. 'Personal Responsibility'

Health care is a right as stated in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and confirmed by most other civilized nations.
It seems that people are afraid of the consequences of declaring health a human right but are blind to the bankruptcy of our current 'personal responsibility' health care system. They feel that creating an entitlement to health care will lead to out of control health spending.
Well, we have out of control health spending now that is driven by profit, not health. We should give health a chance and take away the excessive profits.
The US as a whole spends more than twice any other country on 'personal responsibility' health care but suffers the worst health of all industrialized advanced countries (and even a few poorer countries such as Cuba).
Our profit oriented personal responsibility health care system is bankrupting the country. Individually, each of us is only one serious illness away from personal bankruptcy. (Actually, those in our 'socialized' Medicare system are protected from this bad outcome.)
We are all entitled to a better health care system. One that is oriented to providing basic human rights rather than ensuring profits for pharma, insurance, hospitals, etc.
The events of the last eight years have proven that unregulated capitalism does not work. We need to face up the fact that the government must provide services and regulation where the private sector has been an abysmal failure. This means regulated universal health care as a right... and yes, it may mean that you may make less profit in health care. This is a good thing for all of us. You will not starve and I will not mourn the excessive profits of the health care industry.