The Plan, What Is Their Health Care Plan? Universal?

The Health Care Reform plan(s) has/have some basic goals:
A. insure everyone has or can get coverage (that’s what universal means)
B. guarantee you keep coverage, you cannot be denied coverage
C. slow the growth of health care costs
D. improve the quality of care provided
E. hold insurance and health care companies responsible to deliver service

Might as well examine each goal then, so here goes Universal.
If you have an ethical philosophy that would advocate that we individually have a social responsibility to all the members of our society, or to humanity at a more general level; you would most likely take the position that something like health care should be a societal responsibility. If your ethical/moral philosophy is rooted in a religious belief structure, it is even easier to expect that you would hold everyone individually to being responsible to aid and assist those in need, like the sick or injured, of such basic benefits from society. Among these is health care.

But let’s suppose you are not religious, but more of a person who is committed to the principles of a democratic and capitalist system like that in America. Well, despite the fact that most founding Fathers were also persons of various religious orientations; they tried to insure that our Government did not interfere with our religious freedom; and equally, if not perhaps more importantly, to preserve our freedoms and Government from an advocated religious view. Makes for an interesting contention of ideals, principles and values that are based in or consistent with religious beliefs with insuring that our democratic system and freedom is not compromised by these same moral values. An odd thought: to be compromised by one’s moral values.

But I contend that the “right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” would encompass the right to reasonable and quality health care. Further, that to be a democratic society; we would accept that there are rights that we are responsible for which can only be effectively provided by a collaborative endeavor. A recognition that we will individually benefit the most only from an approach to health care that is based on the principles of universality. This is why the capitalistic system developed the insurance business. An understanding that the best way to provide the greatest value at the most competitive price would be to form a collaborative endeavor that shared the cost of health care services by getting a sufficiently large pool of individuals to share in the risk that they may need those services. When we talk about socialized medicine and health care as if it were some socialistic, communistic, repressive, totalitarian, evil, corrupt, and perverted approach to health care; we are deceiving ourselves. Americans created the best health care system in the world by understanding that it was at it heart a capitalistic and a societal approach. If you don’t join together in participating in the system, you cannot achieve the benefits that a free society can deliver to itself.

So the debates and arguments on Health Care Reform, are off-topic. The politicians have either mis-understood the issues themselves, do not or cannot recognize their responsibilities to guide the public discussion toward what is important, or are too busy focusing on political priorities and campaign funding opportunities that are available from special interest groups and lobbyists. It would appear that we cannot depend on the politicians, of either stripe, to lead us to a Health Care Reform approach that will help realize the benefits from using the principles of the American vision that have created the wealth and power of a free and democratic people. They are not likely to achieve “promoting the general welfare”.

While the responsibility to provide universal health care may be an appropriate and reasonable obligation of a free democratic society, it does not explain how it is to be paid for. I don’t think there is any significant portion of the American populace that would not support a universal Health Care system, if they were not afraid that either their own health care might be placed at risk, or that they would be unduly made to bear the cost of such a system. If it were less expensive than our current system and no one would have to spend more for their specific coverage than they do now; who would stand up and shout down moving to such a system. Perhaps, fools and warped individuals who just don’t want anyone else to receive any benefit would protest; but not rational and informed individuals. You know the fools and cynics, the folks who want their piece of the pie; but they cannot see why someone else should even expect to be treated equally.

So unless you don’t think it’s in your own interest to have affordable, available and quality health care; the question of universal is not a salient aspect of the debate. We need to move on to something that is.