For the record:
This blog supports health care reform and a public health option, and longtime readers know that’s in part because of my experience with the inability to acquire health coverage during the first half of my pregnancy with AG in 1998. What those frightening months of no insurance – and therefore no maternity care – taught me about people’s plummeting through the cracks in this country informs my political views on the issue today.
To take a broader and less personal view, though, my feelings about health care fall on the *basic human right* side and not the *luxury* one. Why else do organizations like the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders and Remote Area Medical exist, if not to provide as many people as possible with a decent chance of survival, no matter where they were born and no matter what the circumstances?
You may not agree with me. In fact, I know some of you won’t.
But we should all agree to base our arguments on verifiable facts and not Facebook rumors and/or the scary commercials funded by the industries afraid of losing money with a public option.
To read the facts behind the health care debate and check the accuracy of politicians’ statements (including President Obama’s), you can use the same independent fact-checking sites as in last year’s election:
Fact Check, the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Public Policy Center’s project, is the most well-known website. Its Seven Falsehoods About Health Care is a great place to start reading.
The St. Petersburg Times’ Politifact won the Pulitzer this year for its work on debunking the myths and checking the accuracy of public statements on issues like health care reform.
I agree that healthcare is a basic human right and not something a person should have to prove themselves worthy of obtaining. And, no, I don’t believe doctors will suddenly lose all sense of human decency and provide shoddy care to their patients on a public plan. Maybe some will and shame on them – they probably won’t be in business long, however. How many times has it been noted that the US has the most expensive health care? Why do you think this is? Because it is some form of magic healthcare that other countries aren’t aware of? Nope. They all have public options that force the prices down to a manageable level.
OK, so I know that the US and Canada are vastly different in their history, needs, and ideas with regards to healthcare. That’s why all this comparison that has been going on in the media lately is largely misguided.
But, I have to say, that I have always been taught that equal and indiscriminate access to healthcare is a basic human right never to be violated. That’s just how it is seen here.
I’ve been in and around our healthcare system since I was a kid and it has never let me down, not once. And I feel really good about the fact that I am receiving the exact same care as the asthmatic kid whose parents don’t have a job, as well as the asthmatic kid whose parents own half the businesses in Toronto.
I don’t know enough about the US administration nor about the *money* side of healthcare to comment any further on how this could work. All I can say is that I agree with Michelle, it’s unlikely that a reform will cause all healthcare providers to stop being motivated to provide excellent care. .
Michelle–Don’t you just love, too, the emphasis on most *expensive* care rather than on *best quality*? There’s even been research lately that shows we’re not getting value for our $$. We spend the most, but our actual health doesn’t match up.
Danielle—Thanks for chiming in, and I agree–it’s misguided and misleading. Everyone I’ve ever known in Canada–including you, of course– has only had good things to say about your country’s care and its availability to everyone.
The health care I receive, as with most people in this country, is determined by private ,for-profit corporations that pay out dividends to their shareholders.
So what’s worse, big business or the government? I’m leaning toward the government. Lets take some of the jillions we spend on war and use it on keeping us healthier.
Well said, Steve. Government-run health care will have its share of problems and I’m not anti-business, but I just don’t like the effect that questions of profit and loss have on public health.