A Moral Issue

I am reading a book about healthcare called The Healing of America by T. R. Reid. The book examines how health care is managed in other countries as a way to assess what might work in the United States; however, the author starts by making the case that he basic issue of health care is not an economic issue, but a moral one.

In the United States, it is estimated that tens of thousands of people die every year because they do not have the money or the insurance to get the healthcare they need, and a few hundred thousand go bankrupt each year. In almost all other industrialized countries, those numbers are zero and zero, respectively. In this country, and only this country among wealthier nations, people with money and good jobs get all the healthcare they need. People of lesser means, or those afflicted with really extensive medical problems, don't get the care they need, or end up going into debt to pay their bills.

Most people in this country call themselves Christians. If there is anything to be learned from Christianity, it is that we are responsible for each other. Why is it then that, as a country, we can be so selfish? How can we be comfortable with our neighbors being forced into bankruptcy because they are unfortunate enough to become really ill? Why is it OK that people with less money die every year because they didn't get care?

It isn't a message that we hear much in the public debate, perhaps because it doesn't resonate politically -- Americans just don't care enough about each other to get excited about the problems of their neighbors. But in other countries, it's the moral issue more than ony other that is behind universal healthcare. It's a pretty sad commentary on our country that we don't even talk about it.