When private companies that operate with only one bottom line – profit – run services that are vital for human flourishing, problems arise. A perfect example is the fact that the US is allowing insurers to raise fees for sick children, reported two days ago in the NYT. Now, if one truly does not care about sick children (or the poor, or the uninsured) and think private profits are the ultimate good in-and-of themselves, then I guess this isn’t a problem. But some of us care about sick children.
If you care about human beings, you simply can’t allow health insurance to be operated in this manner (i.e., privately and with little accountability).
Filed under: Politics/International Affairs
Do you see a difference between basic health care and health insurance?
In what they actually are, yes. In how they should be operated (i.e. under more cost-efficient and democratic control, instead of privately-run, unaccountable and profit-driven institutions), no. And it’s striking to see over the years that a majority of Americans favor this, the single-payer system, while our government can’t even get a bill with a public option passed because it’s “politically impossible.” Not because people don’t want it – they do – but because the insurance companies don’t want it, and it is their interests to which out government caters. So much for democracy.