“As a nation, we first need to answer the question as to whether health care is a right or a privilege before we jump into the details of fixing it. If health care is a privilege, then we need to decide unapologetically who should die unnecessarily (certainly letting the old, poor, and sick die would be the most financially advantageous) . If that seems a bit harsh and we can’t determine who we should discriminate against, then perhaps we feel health care is a right. If it is a right, then by definition it has to be universal. So then all we need to do is figure out the most cost effective way to provide universal coverage. Interestingly, by simply getting to this point in the conversation, the us vs. them begins to go away and it is just an us—how do we cover everyone and what is that coverage going to be? Heck, that is almost a simple conversation compared to where we are now.”
John Brady MD writing about conversations he has been having with some of his patients about the need to step back from rhetoric and dogma to address the real underlying issues in health care in the US.
