On Health Care reform

[benlehman]

Apologies to non-Americans.

One of the things I see over and over again in the health care debate is the framing of the issue as about rights. "Do people have a right to health care?" etc.

Folks, this is not what it's about. Universal health care coverage is a public good, like the highway system or the military or the National Academy of Science. Health care improves quality of life for everyone in the country, even the wealthy. People who live in countries with universal health care coverage are just plain healthier, even if they would have had health care coverage otherwise.

Why is this? Because bacteria and virii are contagious.

Duh.

Comments

[gbsteve.livejournal.com]

In crowded places like Europe, the benefits of looking after your neighbours extends further than the prevention of disease, even just from the self-interest point of view. Social care prevents the poorest from spoiling things for the rest of us.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Lost productivity hurts shareholder profit margins.
It also makes some of us write up recipes for shareholder in a slow-cooker.

[nekoewen.livejournal.com]

In general, there's a thing that if your workers are happy and healthy, they're more productive and loyal. American corporations seem to have a shaky grasp on that concept, and American retailers seemingly want to have disgruntled employees who steal from them.

[aumshantih.livejournal.com]

You are totally correct, sir.

[zigguratbuilder.livejournal.com]

Some folks claim Health Care is not a Right!

But yeah, neither is electricity, highways, running water, food inspection, pest control, an organized police or disaster control force (firefighers).

Public option is off the table, and thus so is my interest in the rest of the proceedings. I figure if nothing else, the way social change in politics happens, is that something small is passed, then a few years later something else small that adds to it, and so on until the next Small Change in 20 years or so down the road turns out to be public-funded health care.

-Andy