Opening a real healthcare debate

“There’s nothing liberal about wanting to make sure that everybody has health care. We are spending more on health care in this country than any other advanced country. We got more uninsured. There’s nothing liberal about saying that doesn’t make sense, and we should do something smarter with our health-care system. Don’t let them run that okey-doke on you!”
- Senator Barack Obama

I found the above quote in today’s Washington Post. It’s a great quote in an overall insightful article regarding Obama’s liberalism — or lack thereof, depending on who you talk to. As much as I agree with the quote, there is definitely something liberal about Obama’s healthcare stance, from a Republican standpoint.

To nationalize health care into a single-payer system, an ideal Obama has supported, would cut into the assumed right to profit of the insurance companies. After all, if we move to a more social healthcare system, what will become of the Aetnas of the country?

There’s a libertarian thought that government doesn’t do many things well, so we should reduce their capacities and let private industry take care of most of our country’s needs. I tend to agree that the bureaucracy tends to have too many moving parts, thus moves slowly and disjointedly. However, moving core operations to the private sector highlights different problems.

The problem with private industry is that it’s main goal is to generate a profit. In some cases, there’s nothing wrong with that. Private businesses need to generate a profit in order to continue providing their product or service. But at what peripheral cost comes this profit?

Imp contributor Gracchus is better prepared to present statistics from the World Health Organization which show that we do spend more on healthcare than other nations, and that we have a higher rate of uninsured citizens. So whether you come down on the side of private healthcare or you prefer a nationalized system, I hope we can agree that our system as currently constituted isn’t working. Paying more and getting less isn’t the best way to conduct business.