How About Some Health Care in USA USA USA

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

MSNBC.com Sept. 28, 2001

New World Calls for New Health Care
Government Should Provide Safety Net for All Americans

by Arthur Caplan, Ph.D.

Everything is different now. This is a mantra that has echoed all
over our nation since the terrorist attacks. But one thing has stayed
the same - our lousy health care system. And now, as we cope with the
loss of jobs as well as lives, it's more important than ever for the
government to provide a safety net for all Americans.

WE ONCE lived in a world so secure that our only sense of daily risk
came from titillation provided by reality television programs and
Hollywood thrillers. That world is gone. We once lived in a world
where our greatest fears were stoked by images of human clones and
computers run amok. That world is gone. We once lived in a world
where we had grown callous and indifferent toward the tribulations of
our neighbors. That world is gone too.

I have been thinking a lot about the world we left behind lately
while listening to the words of the spouses, friends, lovers and
children of those killed in the terrorist attacks. One woman in
particular caught my attention. I did not catch her name on the
television interview, but her husband was killed in one of the World
Trade Center buildings. She has five children and medical and
psychological health care bills to pay. She is not sure what she is
going to do about paying them.

Everything is different now. Except we still have the same pathetic,
immoral health care system we had the day before the terrorist
assaults.  This mom and the thousands more who are facing the same
problem of how to pay their health care bills should not face this
problem.

All the rest of us who are now collectively soldiers in the war on
terrorism should not have to worry about health care bills. It is
time to do what is right and make sure that the old broken naive
world of health care insurance is gone too.

GUARANTEED HEALTH CARE ACCESS

Our leaders say you need to prepare for a long, tough war.  I believe
them. I support them. But those who are in the fight, you and me, the
lady with the five kids, those who have lost their jobs as flight
attendants, pastry chefs, airplane designers, hotel workers, and
everyone else in this country should know that their neighbors and
their nation will not let them down. It is time to act like a
community and guarantee access to health care to every American.

It may seem crazy to call for a massive push to create a new social
program at a time when the economy is reeling and the nation is ready
to go to war. But strange as it may seem, this is precisely the time
to make sure that no American need wonder how they are going to pay
for their medical bills or those of their kids.

The new breed of war knows no boundaries. It does not distinguish
between soldier and housewife. It can cost you your job and your
health insurance overnight. It can come right to your doorstep and
leave you hurt or disabled.

PUTTING PUBLIC GOOD FIRST

In the past, efforts to create a national health care plan have
foundered when private interests have defeated the public good.
Americans can no longer afford to put the public good behind private
interest. No mother should be worrying about how to pay for her kids'
medical bills because her husband has been killed by terrorists.

President Bush and Congress ought to announce a plan to mandate that
every American will have access to high quality health care. The plan
should not put the government in charge of providing care. It should
simply state that every American will have access to care - either
through privately purchased health care plans, coverage earned
through military service or employment or through
government-sponsored insurance vouchers. What we have done for our
automobiles
-- universally insure them -- we must now do for our neighbors.

After the World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War, those who
served knew that they would get the medical care they needed. A
grateful nation promised them what they had earned. In the new world
where each of us is a target and every American is a veteran, we must
make the same promise to one another. Every American must know that
regardless of what terrorists do there is a safety net for them and
their families.


[Arthur Caplan, Ph.D., is director of the Center for Bioethics at the
University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.]

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