Approach Health Care as a basic human right
Posted By: Christine Busch-Nema 
Date Posted: August 26th, 2010 Category: Health Care Reform
All the posturing about ending Obama-care and the new “scary S” word…socialism really bugs me. If we understood that access to healthcare is simply a basic human right then all this bunk would stop!
As a hospital group I’m sure you see your share of absolute horrible cases. Is there some way to use your voice as health care providers to help change this attitude?
It is a real shame that one of the wealthy countries can’t seem to take care of the basic human needs of its population.
Comment By: June Fowler
Date & Time: September 14, 2010 at 4:26 pm
BJC has consistently and continuously advocated for guaranteed and affordable access to health care coverage with patient choice of doctors, hospitals and insurers. While BJC provides a significant amount of charity care and financial assistance for patients who do not have insurance, those costs are eventually passed on to those who do have insurance. A better system is needed.
Comment By: Roland Walkenhorst
Date & Time: December 16, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Christine and June:
I am new to this forum, so I apologize for the late response to your posts of several months ago. We often hear conservatives and libertarians (I am the latter, with a small “lâ€) say that health care is not a right. I have a slightly different take on that: Yes, every human being does have a right to high-quality health care – just not at somebody else’s expense.
I have no more right to claim another person’s wealth to pay for medical care than for a new car or wide-screen TV. And using government to accomplish that involuntary wealth transfer does not make it any more moral than if I take it by force myself. This is called “stealing†when done by anybody except the government, even when the stolen goods are used for a benevolent purpose.
What is needed is a free market in medical care. Christine, I can imagine you rolling your eyes. But don’t buy the nonsense that the "reformers†have been spouting. The problems we have in health care are not the fault of too much freedom, as the demagogues in DC would have us believe. I’m 58 and we have not had free-market health care in this country in my lifetime.
Government intervention has been the rule, starting with post-WWII wage controls that encouraged the illogical coupling of health insurance with employment, to Medicare and Medicaid, which artificially set prices and force doctors to make every ailment fit a given “code,†to prescription drug “insurance,†which mainly benefits large drug companies while adding horribly to the nation’s red ink.
Medical care is no different than any other product or service in that a free market is always the best way to allocate resources. A handful of central planners – self-interested politicians and bureaucrats beholden to corporate interests – can never come close to the collective wisdom of millions of buyers and sellers making voluntary exchanges in the marketplace.
Comment By: Don Duncan
Date & Time: December 18, 2010 at 8:37 pm
According to the IRS 46 million Americans who filed income taxes make less than 15 thousand a year. Why is this? It is because corporations fight tooth and nail to keep the minimum wage as low as possible. All the while paying CEOs hundreds of millions. 20% of Americans make 49% of the money earned in this country. Along with this massive accumulation of wealth comes responsibility to those who's back they walk on. If companies would pay a living wage then people could afford insurance. Health care givers are required to give "life saving" treatment regardless of ability to pay. The very poor are covered by Medicaid. The wealthy (or those making a livable wage) can buy insurance. The ones left out in the cold are the hard working middle class. Those who are really trying to pull their own weight but can not afford the spiraling cost of health care or insurance. These are not dead beats or lazy bums that the Tea Party would have you believe. This is the ONLY country in the world who make health care a profit business. You would think that since Americans spend 3 times what any other country spends on health care that ours would be the best in the world. According to the World Health Organization we rank not second or third but 6th in the world !! All other nations know that health care is a human right.They can not understand the debate in this country. They say "Why wouldn't they want to take care of there sick?" Why??? Because we have free enterprise. Everything comes down to money. "Why should I pay for it?" The same country who spend a trillion dollars to kill people say that the cost of health care will break our nation. Cost estimates for ten years equals HALF of what we spent in Iraq in ONE MONTH !!
Do the RIGHT thing. Put life before the dollar !!
Comment By: Roland Walkenhorst
Date & Time: December 28, 2010 at 4:40 am
So, Don, let's just get our compassionate, selfless politicians to set the minimum wage at $500 an hour. Then we'll all be rich.
Next let's have them make a law that forces all doctors to work for free. Then we'll all be healthy.
Ending the idiotic foreign adventures that the buffoons in DC have gotten us into is a great idea, but don't think for a minute that having them spend that money on more screwball healthcare schemes will help anybody but their rich buddies.
Economically, medical care is no different than any other product or service. If you want it delivered efficiently, you have to let the market work. What we're seeing today is the result of many decades of government interference.
Politicians have done enough damage. Please don’t beg them for more help.