Editorials

Health care reform now

Oct 1, 2009 10:38 AM

Education is a fundamental human right. So is universal health care. There is no moral justification in denying it to anyone, especially in the most prosperous nation on earth.

That is why we support President Obama’s quest for real health care reform now.

Our current system is failing. Costs are spiraling. Large sections of the population have limited or no access to preventive, health-sustaining or life-saving care. The quality of care, though at its best unsurpassed in the world, is neither consistent nor keeping pace.

We lag behind 36 other nations, including Morocco, Cyprus and Colombia, according to the World Health Organization. And yet our costs per person are more than double the top-ranked countries.

Why?

Special interests, such as pharmaceutical corporations and insurance carriers, are luxuriating in astronomical profits literally at the expense of human lives.

There is nothing inherently wrong with corporations making profits. But it must be in proportion, responsible and not the sole goal of their existence.

There are some individual opponents of universal health care whose positions, though not enlightened, are rooted in good faith.

But there are groups, fueled in part by reactionary media pundits, who are waging a giant, hostile and calculated crusade of “disinformation.” They are provoking doubt and spreading panic.

There is no contradiction between a free enterprise system, which we value with a few caveats, and health care reform that includes public health insurance. Medicare is an example. It is taxpayer-supported and almost nobody clings to the arguments that were originally waged against it more than 40 years ago.

Health care reform must extend services to the uninsured. It must do so without diminishing what is currently offered privately or publicly through collective bargaining or otherwise.

The entire American labor movement strongly favors real health care reform with a full and robust health insurance component.

Because all Americans deserve quality care.