From: mireles@anhinga (David Mireles)
Subject: Think twice! re: The Decline of America:  Apartheid in Health-Care
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: Florida State University
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 22:49:58 GMT

In article <1992Oct6.163041.25448@mont.cs.missouri.edu>  
harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)  
writes:
> "Should health care be a fundamental right?"
> 1968, 1975, 1978 polls:         over 75% yes
>  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> In a 1988 Harris poll 90 percent of the public responded that  
everyone
> should be entitled to care "as good as a millionaire could get."
>  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This is an interesting poll.  Let me ask this, should everyone be  
entitled to have a home, a safe neighborhood, a means of  
transportation, three hot-meals a day, etc.?  The answer for anyone  
that has any remote conscience is obviously yes.  Everyone should be  
"entitled" to a good life and all the benefits therein.  A question  
more relevant to the issue is what exactly does "entitled" mean?  For  
the above poll does it mean that everyone should have equal health  
care, and if this is so what should define that level of equality to  
be shared?  I would think that most people would agree that there  
should be a base-line of medical benefits to be shared and that this  
base-line should have the potential of covering all possible medical  
afflictions.
  
Now the issue turns not whether people should have medical care, but  
who should be the sole bearer of that responsibility.  Posit this  
analogue:  For the welfare of living, food is perhaps the most  
essential item.  With out food a person cannot live.   If a society  
is to survive the members of that society must be able to survive.   
Thus it is imperative that food be available for that society and its  
members. In fact, there should be a base-line of a certain amount of  
food available to each member.  Now the question is this, who should  
be the providers of that food?  Should each individual hand over a  
certain percent of their paycheck to an agency set up by the society,  
which would in turn redistribute the wealth in the form of equal  
portions of food that meet the defined base-line?  So perhaps people  
would have to go to an agency-supported food store that would supply  
their weekly proportion of food.  What implications might this have?   
First off, everyone would definitely get what food they needed to  
survive, but (secondly) they would get just that--what is necessary  
for survival.  This means that the only food available is what is  
supported and supplied by the agency (starting to sound very  
communistic?).  There would be no emphasis on diversity (as in to  
quality) since the products in food stores sold would be only those  
that could be supported by the agency (ie., the common wealth  
donation minus bureaucratic finances--which we know to be overly  
expensive).  The overall quality of food in both availability and  
diversity would be lowered since not every individual in the  
population would be handing over the same amount of income but every  
individual would receiving equal proportions (this is especially true  
for a society that has a larger number of lower than higher income).   
I ask this: Would you rather pay for your own food, for however much  
and for what ever kind you want, or have a government agency  
determine for your the amount you will receive and the diversity that  
you can have (as such was the case in the former USSR)?

This is obviously taking the case to the extreme, but the same  
principles follow for socialized housing, transportation, and health  
care.  A more efficient system would exist if individuals could  
supply there own support for living (taking out the funnel always  
increases flow).  What about those who can't because of lower  
economic status?  Society should focus their efforts on bringing  
those in the lower economic status out of it by supplying them with a  
better education and thus more opportunities for higher paying jobs.   
And in the mean while provide those people with a minimum but  
sufficient level of support (if total luxury is given, then for what  
reason would someone want to change their status?)  The society  
should not just treat the symptoms and ignore the disease.  Because  
the disease will just remain and spread!

D.E. Mireles

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`

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