With the passage of the recent healthcare bill, I've started thinking what makes healthcare a right? Certainly, like many of my classmates, I believe this, but what makes it true? Is it an inherent property of being human or living in a society that we deserve to be seen by a doctor when we are sick? Or is healthcare really a function of individual wealth or societal wealth?
For me, the answer actually comes from political philosopher John Rawls. "Justice," he writes, "is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override."
In the same way, care of the patient is the first virtue of the physician. To a physician, reimbursement, lifestyle, respect, sense of self-worth are all secondary endpoints, and a physician who values these things higher than the patient's care is not a physician at all. The undertaking of medicine necessarily involves sacrifice on the part of the doctor, a setting aside of his own priorities to take on that of the patient, and this is fundamental to the development of trust between the patient and physician that must happen for healing to occur. A patient who does not trust his doctor guts his doctor of the tools of his trade, and a patient cannot trust his doctor unless he knows his doctor prioritizes his care over his own selfish ends.
Furthermore, this ordering of priorities is mandated regardless of who the patient is. The physician must care for and value higher than himself any patient who comes before him; he cannot pick and choose. In the same way that a theory must be dismantled if false or a government must be abolished if unjust, a physician cannot be a physician if he selects who he sees or what he does on the basis of money or insurance.
We are morally obligated to place the patient before ourselves; this is the patient-physician covenant. And as a result, insurance status ought not to influence who we treat. This is an external factor that arises in this ridiculous milieu we call healthcare delivery, and by ridding ourselves of its constraints, we rid ourselves of inadvertently discriminating against the uninsured when this has no bearing on who we treat. We must demand a forum of equality for patients to see doctors; we cannot bar them at the door. This is why healthcare equality - and in this instance, universal insurance - is so important. It allows doctors to do their job, that is, put patients before themselves.
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4 comments:
The Least the citizens of a country can Expect from the Governments and its Country, to get Good And Affordable health care to all the Needy.
I agree with your reasoning why healthcare should be a right. However, it would be a mistake to think that PPACA makes healthcare a right. We will still have millions of uninsured. For those who are insured, their insurance will not prevent them from going into debt in order to finance their healthcare when they truly need it. Even covered services will only be 70% covered, leaving 30% up to the patient. For gravely ill patients, whose care may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, this cost is too high.
We need to adopt a single payer healthcare system to make healthcare a true right of all Americans. A single payer system would provide guaranteed, automatic, and complete coverage for all medical expenses for everyone living in America, providing a foundation for equal care without regard to financial status. http://pnhp.org
Insurance companies are minting public money, most of the time the insurance won't cover one or the other tests or medications. It is a publicity gimmick that these health insurance companies do & attract people towards them & then gives shock to them by giving some or the other exclusions for settling claims.
Is there a right to force someone else to do something for you? Because healthcare has to come from someone else. I think that one of society's highest goals should be providing health care for everyone regardless of economic station. Just like education, fire/police protection, etc.
But these are nothing at all like the right to assemble, the right to speak or print your words, or the right to worship as you please. We in the health care system often get these two completely different concepts mixed up.
It's GOOD that we are trying to give everyone health coverage. But what if no one wanted to be a doctor? Do you (or any other patient) have some "right" to force someone into slavery to your health needs? Obviously not.
There is no "right" to health care, any more than you have a "right" to an education. It's something that we work together to give everybody, because it's a good idea to give it to everybody and share it equitably. You receive it based on your "sliding-scale" contribution to society's productivity. If you can't contribute, that's fine. You should still get it, just like the police will still protect you if you need them. But don't confuse that with a right.
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