Ethics or economics?

Posted by bafoster on Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at 9:59 pm

Is health care an economic or a moral issue?

Let’s imagine for a moment that we were talking about education instead of health care.

At the time of this discussion, over 10% of children have no access to any schooling and 5% additionally only get to go to school 1-2 days a week (inadequate schooling). For the other 85%, they have access to schools, but if they have a learning disability, they may not be able to transfer schools, many have to pay for their books, and a large proportion of the rest have to pay their teachers their lunch money or they can’t attend (and lunch is getting more expensive by the day). And then there are the children who can only get one lens for their glasses, not two, because they can’t demonstrate that two makes it easier for them to read.

The question before Congress is whether or not we should give these children access to quality schools and ensure that children can choose a school that’s right for them (within a certain area) and not be denied going to the school because they had a prior need for glasses or have dyslexia.

To enable all of these children to get a quality education is going to cost money – lots of money. And we don’t necessarily have the greatest evidence in the world that even educating these children will save money in the long term – we think it will, but we have no guarantees.

So should we do it? Is this an ethical dilemma or an economic one? How should the debate be framed?

Senator Reid recently raised this question as a rhetorical one in a town hall debate on health care (see: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/sep/01/harry-reid-reform-moral-issue-financial-benefits/)

He sees it as a moral issue with economic benefits. But he is a partisan Democrat acting on his party’s behalf… or so some critics will claim. Or at least the claim is that the current health reform effort is simply another attempt by the Democrat liberals to enlarge the government and the government’s control in our lives with increased spending.

It is highly unfortunate that the issue of providing health care to those who need it has become a partisan issue. It is not one. And the fact that it has taken that tone saddens me. It should sadden all of us that instead of working together to try and tackle one of the major ethical issues of our time we allowed the discussion to be distracted by partisanship. Our education system is not perfect, but we have worked out a system where every child has access to education – not because it is cost-effective but because it is the right thing to do for children. As a recent post on this same blog pointed out, we need to focus on how to get health care to those who need it – we need to “get out there and do something about it.” The current health care reform may also not be perfect, but we collectively need to keep our eye on the goal of ensuring quality care for everyone who needs it and stop getting bogged down in party rhetoric – both of the ‘single-payer only’ type and the ‘anti-government run health care’ type. This is a moral issue. I think all Americans agree to some extent on that. Let that be the starting point and let’s get to work.

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