Category
Shakespeare's plays all begin with a conflict that is well underway by the time the curtain goes up. A divided court, controversial law, and a presidential election five months away took center stage in this summertime drama. In what seems to be the climax for President’s Obama signature legislation, we are actually in the midst of the greatest health care transition this country has ever seen.
Talk of the end of American exceptionalism seems to be everywhere lately, but in at least one area, the United States inarguably reigns supreme. Currently, per capita health care expenditures in the U.S. are approaching $8,000 a year, far more than anywhere else in the world. The nation with the second-highest per capita cost, Norway, spends $2,500 less per person per year. What do Americans get for their money? A life expectancy of 78.2 years, slightly ahead of Panama and Libya.
There was never much doubt that if the Supreme Court ever got a chance to decide the constitutionality of the health care reform law that it would be in for rough sledding from the court’s five conservatives. The judicial torpedoing of the law will hurt millions of poor, working-class Americans who desperately need health care, but couldn’t get affordable care before the law was passed, and are just as unlikely to get affordable care if it’s struck down. It’s no mystery who among those millions will be hurt the most.
The positions of Ron Paul and other Republicans on the issue of healthcare—whether it be through the advocacy of unrealizable autonomy or the use of various red herrings—serve only as an impediment to access, degree of coverage and improvement in quality of care. The reality of attaining health insurance is not just about choice; for many, it’s about luck. Expanding healthcare coverage diminishes the unjust force luck has in each person’s life.