16. September 2009 by student.

As mentioned in class this evening, the major question at the basis of the current healthcare debate is whether healthcare is a right or a privilege.  The truth is that healthcare is a limited commodity; there are only so many doctors, hospitals, nurses, prescription drugs, etc.  The current nurse shortage has been highly publicized, and the shortage of doctors (especially primary care doctors) has been discussed in articles such as this one in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/health/policy/27care.html.  If healthcare is a right, the government has the responsibility to provide healthcare to every American.  The current shortages will only increase as millions of new customers are brought into the system.  Even if we decide that healthcare is a right, we still face the challenge of providing it to everyone.  Even nations like Britain with national healthcare systems must ration care.  The government basically allocates a set amount of money to be spent on each patient, with the occasional exception (Tanner, article in US News and World Report).  Every citizen thus has healthcare, but the amount of healthcare each person is entitled to is limited.  What happens if a patient has cancer and needs very expensive drugs?  These drugs are usually not considered to be “cost effective” since it is a large expenditure for only one patient.  Can’t that money be of more use if it is divided among multiple people?  What is the value of one human life?  These are essential questions that our citizens and government must consider in order to institute reform.  There will always be problems because there is simply not enough care to go around.  Some people feel they are entitled to as much care as they want if they can pay for it, others feel that everyone deserves the right to care even if it limits the amount of care per person.  I encourage everyone to check out these two opinion pieces on each side of the argument from the US News and World Report and see where you stand on this issue: http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2009/08/11/should-american-healthcare-be-rationed.html.

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