Whether we get good health care or bad health care is a vital component of ALL of our lives...and we want every American to get excellent care. 

 

But the right v. privilege debate misses the point.  If you go straight to the founding documents, health care is not a right.  Sure, the Declaration of Independence says that we all have "unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," but that's not the U.S. Constitution, and using that phrase to say we all have a right to health care is a stretch anyway.  Plus, although the purpose of the actual U.S. Constitution is to "promote the general Welfare," the word used is promote, not provide.  

 

The two documents that inch health care more toward an actual right are the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights ("everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care") and the World Health Organization resolution 58.33 (which speaks to equity in access, plus financial-risk protection to ensure that the cost of health care does not put people at risk of financial catastrophe) — but those still don't get us to every single person has the right to free health care, which is pretty much what people mean when they say health care is a right (meaning, people who say this don't typically mean the government should simply acknowledge that health care is one of our Constitutional rights —they mean the government should be responsible for giving health care to each of us).

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It is 1000% understandable that this issue sparks high-level, heartbreaking emotions....because, at its core, it is about our loved ones who have life-threatening cancer, heart disease, or things like high-blood pressure that can cause massive strokes.  It's about our children who have severe asthma or diabetes or other potentially debilitating health issues.  It's about desperately wanting the ones we love to have the highest quality of health care, and to be with us — pain free — for as long as they possibly can. 

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We deeply love America, and we deeply love Americans.  Our commitment to social justice should be crystal clear throughout this website.  In fact, we believe it's a waste of time to even have a health care discussion without being brutally honest about the effects that inadequate education, low or no employment, episodic poverty, dangerous and segregated housing, opioid addiction, and an extremely unfair criminal justice system have on our national health. 

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That said, when speaking of how to best deliver high-quality, low-cost health care, the stronger argument is one that moves beyond emotions — and goes straight to the dollars and cents.  

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The principle at the heart of the health care policy debate is not about our rights.  It’s about the very best way to provide universal health coverage — which means that, as the World Health Organization puts it, “all people and communities can use the promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services they need, of sufficient quality to be effective, while also ensuring that the use of these services does not expose the user to financial hardship.”

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On this point, we are an emphatic YES!!  One thing the U.S. Constitution definitely provides us is the freedom to build a country we can all be proud of.  America will never be a country that abandons citizens in need and thank God for that.  Because of this gift, we need to design smart programs that give us the biggest bang for our buck.  Because — hear this — we are spending the money anyway.

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According to The Economist, in an article written in 2018, “America is the only rich country to lack universal coverage.  Even in a booming economy, 12 percent of American adults remain uninsured.  Though the best care they receive is world-beating, the system as a whole has high costs and disappointing results.  America spends 17 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on health care, the highest of any rich country, but in return achieves an average life expectancy no better than that of the formerly communist countries of eastern Europe.”  Ouch.

 

That pretty much sums up our bleak situation.  If we allow emotions to get in the way of common sense, we will lose our way.  The challenges we face in health care are linked in intricate ways and, therefore, our solutions must be developed collectively as opposed to individually.

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When it comes to this topic, we all have an ultimate bond of common fate.  We realize that Americans cherish our individual freedoms but, when it comes to health care, our fortunes are completely tied to one another.  For good or ill, we are all in this together.