Health care: Individual or “Collective” Responsibility?
November 13th, 2008 | by Brian Schwartz |…every wealthy country except the United States already has some form of guaranteed health care. …The politics of guaranteed care are also easy, at least in one sense: if the Democrats do manage to establish a system of universal coverage, the nation will love it. I know that’s not what everyone says; some pundits claim that the United States has a uniquely individualistic culture, and that Americans won’t accept any system that makes health care a collective responsibility.
– Paul Krugman, August 10, 2008
It amused me how glibly Dr. Krugman can predict how the nation will love “universal coverage.” In a previous post I pointed out how such coverage does not guarantee care.
Krugman has broached the core issue behind health care policy: Whether or not health care is an individual or collective responsibility.
If we are each responsible as individuals, we each take initiative to insure our own health care and that of our families. Responsible adults who want assist in providing health care to others can donate to health-related charitable organizations that demonstrate their effectiveness.
Under “collective responsibility,” we empower politicians to make these critical choices. But this disempowers ourselves and neighbors, and there’s no virtue in spending other people’s money. With “collective responsibility,” those who peacefully refuse to conform with what politicians say they are “responsible for” becomes a criminal, and faces punishment by law enforcement authorities.
The health care debate isn’t about the intricacies of one plan vs. another. It’s about the ethics: individualism vs. collectivism, or free-market medicine vs. politically-controlled medicine.
