As this country starts moving towards health care reform in Washington, D.C., it is necessary to understand the health care issues being debated, the terminology used and formulate some kind of opinion. After all, whatever legislation is passed, it will affect every American one way or another. At the present time, health care is almost a privilege — that is, for those who have health insurance. It is estimated that approximately 40 million Americans do not have health care insurance. Certainly we all have rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution; however, health care is not one of them.

Before we embark on this journey of understanding health care reform, one must examine his or her own philosophical and/or religious beliefs concerning self and one’s fellow human being. What are the moral and ethical implications regarding health care? Am I my brother’s keeper? Most religions and cultures have a reverence for life, and therefore will help another who is sick and in need of medical care. Would you throw a life preserver to a drowning man? If your neighbor was sick and you had the means to help, would you do so? If you were sick and had no health insurance, would you expect your neighbor to help?

After reviewing our own moral obligations, we next turn to the U.S. government. One of the moral obligations of government is to provide for the welfare of its people, and that is demonstrated by numerous programs such as Medicare for seniors, disability, food stamps, Medicaid, social security administration, Children’s Health Insurance Program and many others. Most who work for the various levels of government, including our elected officials in Congress, are motivated by “public service,” that is, a motivation to serve or help those in need. Naturally, health care comes to mind. Some countries, such as Canada, Norway and Sweden, and the United Kingdom, have some form of health care coverage for all of their citizens. Some call it universal health care, some call it socialized medicine, but for now, we will call it health care for those people who need it.

In future columns, I will discuss who needs health care, who’s going to pay for health care, and general principles of health care reform, developing a budget to pay for health care, public options, health insurance exchanges and further approaches to health care reform.

Dave Brangan is a member of the South Carolina Association for the Advancement of Health Education and a health educator at the Orangeburg-Calhoun Free Medical Clinic. He will present a PowerPoint presentation “Access to Healthcare: A Privilege or a Right?” at noon Wednesday, Oct. 28, at Orangeburg City Hall. Brangan can be reached by e-mail at DaveB72@aol.com.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 4:25 pm and was written by House Call. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.