Article Here
I read this and it made me wonder why people were complaining. It seems like a stupid question, but really, is it?
Here is how I drew it out:
Americans are upset about the price of health care because good health is priceless. But because good health is priceless, how can one be upset about how much it costs?
That question leads me to believe that, while Americans are upset, it is misdirected at health care costs. They are upset because they do not have enough money to buy everything they want. So, given that health care is priceless i.e. you will pay any amount for health (so then how can it cost too much?), the real issue is that everything else costs too much and health care is only being a scapegoat because of both A. it's recent rise in cost and B. it's necessity. I imagine a conversation like this
"Can you afford health care?"
"No! Are you crazy! I can't afford an extra 100 dollars a month!"
"Why not?"
"Car payments, cable, pre-school..."
I'm not saying the health care system is a good one- in fact I understand it is broken- it's one based on convoluted laws and hidden beneath mounds of red tape and legislation. What I am saying is that if you want to call health care a human right, then you have to treat it as one. Oxygen, for example, is a human right. I don't think you'd chose to get HBO over paying for your monthly Oxygen allotment even no matter how good Board Walk Empire is. What I'm saying is that what differentiates rights from everything else, is that people need it, and if people need if they will do what they have to to get it. Maybe the issue isn't that insurance companies are jacking up premiums, maybe it's that people in America are so accustomed to a luxurious lifestyle they are too selfish to give up the comforts they hold so dear. This post isn't about the people who sold their homes and cars and took out loans just to pay for cancer treatment- Jesus Christ, you've been given a burden that no one should have to bear and if there wasn't this push for universal health care maybe our country could afford to allot a certain amount of money to help people out who really need it- this post is about the 20-somethings who bitch about not being able to go to the doctor for strep throat because their vegan/gluten-free diet and 1500 dollar a month loft downtown doesn't allow for it.
Maybe America needs to become more compassionate, or maybe America just needs to re-prioritize.
