Ramble

I just listened to an interview with Jonathan Oberlander on the Fresh Air podcast where he and Terry Gross examine SiCKO and use its points to discuss the current state of the U.S. health care system.  Oberlander makes some excellent comparisons of the U.S. system with that of Canada and even talks a bit about Germany and Australia as models of what may be politically feasible in the U.S.

I have to disagree with the Professor on one point, though.  He says that if we focus more on the economic issues surrounding the health care system from the employer perspective, it could potentially lead to a shifting of the battle field and get business on the side of major reform.  While, I agree that the economic argument is important, I think it has been well discussed in debates about health care in the past, while the moral issue of health care as a right does not often get a lot of attention.  While Professor Oberlander is right to suggest that moral outrage only gets you so far, I think it is an essential component of any real reform strategy and it is that very outrage that is missing from the mainstream debates about this issue.

However, I don’t want to give the wrong impression about my opinion of the interview.  It was fantastic and Professor Oberlander did an excellent job explaining the history of our current system and fairly discussed the limitations and trade-offs of single-payer systems.  I especially liked his comment about how the U.S. does ration care, just as single-payer countries do,  but in the U.S. the 40 million people with no insurance have care rationed to a far greater degree than the universally covered people in the rest of the developed world.

It was a great discussion and I suggest that anyone interested in this topic download the podcast today.  It is one of the better examinations of the health care debate that I have heard.