Health care debate missing a key point

[Mari333]

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009
















'Missing in past and current health reform debate dialogue is acknowledgment that all Americans ought to have the fundamental human right to health care. No one could argue that today's health care system is overburdened, inefficient, expensive and often inaccessible. Many people do not have access to health care. For some, affordability, geography, cultural and ethnic disparities, or language barriers prevent them from receiving care.

Regrettably, the health care reform debate happening in Washington right now puts the proverbial cart before the horse. Save for a very few passionate references from Sen. Edward Kennedy before his death, no one else has once said that health care is a human right to be afforded to every citizen equally. That health care is a human right should have been the framework for the current dialogue from the beginning and the conspicuous foundation of any adopted legislation. Instead, discussion and negotiations have centered exclusively on financial aspects, and while costs are an absolutely pivotal component to reform, it is unfortunate that an expressed agreement on a right to health care was not established first and foremost before talk so quickly dissolved to dollars.

As the various committees in the houses of Congress pass measures on health reform and work toward a final piece of legislation a majority can agree on, the nation inches closer to a new system of health delivery. What is not clear is whether this new system will actually be an equitable improvement over the current one. So far, the dialogue among policymakers has been fraught with statistical and cost interpretations, often fanned by various special interests who quite purposefully have their own and not the public's best interests at heart. While initiated by the president, the debate has largely been framed and driven by insurance and pharmaceutical companies who have mobilized to protect their financial interests in any new system that becomes law. In the end, Congress and the president have been quite clear that the reform plan adopted will not cover every single American, with perhaps as many as 6 percent of the U.S. population to remain without coverage. This is not responsible reform. '.....


















http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20091108/OPINION03/311089972/-1/opinion

[OHdem10]

1. Since the Republicans on the Hill do not believe health care to be

a human right, it appears our representatives on the Hill would
rather just avoid the issue. Therefore, the subject is never
brought up. The GOP much more vocal in declaring it is not a
right than Democrats in stating it is a right.

It is the intensity game. Republicans are more intense therefore
the Media follows their lead.

[Motown_Johnny]

2. My hope is that a Presidential Signing Statement sums up your feelings (and mine)

on that subject, since you will never get that passed in Congress

[timeforpeace]

3. My guess is the Founding Fathers and Mothers assumed people took care of their bodies and having the

state responsible for that never occurred to them.

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. The apparent issue isn't so much the human right to healthcare...

... as it is the widespread belief that someone else should have to pay for it.