It is often difficult to have a meaningful debate on health care for the simple fact that ideologies get in the way. The debate breaks down when people start talking about health care as a right, universal coverage, etc.
Free speech is a right. Peaceful assembly is a right. The pursuit of happiness is a right. None of these concepts can be assigned a meaningful value. To “obtain” any of these rights does not require someone else to give up anything. When I type these words and exercise my right to free speech, I don’t exclude anyone else from using them. I don’t pay anyone for them. To obtain health care, on the other hand, requires someone (many people, often) to give up their time in order to provide that care. The doctor has to set aside a block of time to see only me. The nurse has to set aside a block of time to draw my blood. All that time must be compensated and therefore health care is a commodity. This reality is a hard fact for some to reconcile with their belief system, if they even recognize the need to do so in the first place.
Now before I’m labeled a cold-blooded capitalist who’d rather see people dying in the streets if they can’t afford health care, let me say that I agree that it would be truly remarkable if every human being could have unfettered access to health care. It would be an enlightened achievement indeed. However, that simply is not realistic at this time.
Everywhere you go–yes, even in Michael Moore’s coveted Cuba–health care is ultimately a commodity. The doctors must be compensated for their time and their knowledge and their skill. X-ray machines must be purchased from a manufacturer. Someone has to build the hospital or clinic. And on and on it goes. We can’t, therefore distill the debate down to a statement such as this; “as long as we breathe, health care is a right.” Not only is that statement simply wrong, it ruins any opportunity for either side to learn from one another.
The fact that health care is a commodity and not a right complicates any reform that seeks to provide an acceptable level of access to all members of society. There must be rich, intelligent, and informed debate but it can’t be loaded with ideologies. Otherwise we’ll be at this for generations to come.
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