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I want to bring up and make clear the issue central to our health care problem, and that is money.  Over the last 30 years or so, the focus in US health care has shifted from patient care to making money.  There is little interest in preventative care because there is no money in healthy people.  It is sick people who provide profits, particularly those afflicted with cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.  These illnesses are huge money makers for hospital and drug industry.  Why is the health care industry spending millions per day lobbying to send meaningful reform down to defeat?

Unless we get a strong national, affordable government plan, or a private not-for-profit plan, as an option to the commercial plans, forcing them to compete, we will make no progress.  The Obama initiative will simply join the Clinton effort and business as usual will continue.

To address the ethics of the matter we should first ask ourselves these question, and answer them honestly: 

Is it moral to profit hugely from the illnesses and medical care needs of our fellow citizens? 

Why do Americans spend twice or more on medical care than any other industrialized nation, yet have poorer health, higher infant mortality, and shorter life spans?

Is the free market, or the profit motive, in fact always the best option?  Or are there undertakings in the life of our communities and our nations that serve us better when done in common, that is, socially?  We undertake fire protection, policing, and education in common, or socially.  Why not health care?  Is it not of equal importance to the common good?

And finally, though not directly related, yet absolutely pertinent, we should ask, and answer:  For whose benefit is our Washington government working?  The people at large or the big money special interests?

posted 3 years, 10 months ago
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