Health Care Reform

Two Rochester Institute of Technology philosophy professors are pushing for health care reform in their new book called Health Care Reform: Ethics and Politics. I caught Dr. Timothy Engström on a show on PBS in Rochester and it sounds like he shares many of my concerns. He touched on the well-organized effort by health care to scare citizens away from a national health care system in the 90s despite the scare tactics being blatantly false. Why is America one of the few first-world nations without such a system? And why is America's coverage rate so poor despite its expenses being so high?

In the discussion, he mentioned how this mediocre and costly health care system is helping to drive jobs to other nations. Given the very heavy cost burden in this country, it makes sense to look elsewhere. I've seen stories about jobs going to Canada partially because of health care. He mentioned the possibility of corporations helping drive reform. In my opinion, that's what it'll take to create real reform. It may sound pessimistic, but I think it'll take a united effort that forms a more powerful "special interest" than the health care and pharmaceutical industries. Otherwise, they are corporate beasts that are difficult to defeat.

I'm looking forward to getting a look at their publication which is a group of essays. If they're as good as his discussion on PBS/WXXI, it should be a great read.