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Lecture & Discussion in Oakland, California, January 3, 2010
US Health Care Reform:
Another Historic Moment in the Administration of the Nation’s Poverty
Time: January 3, 2010, Sunday, 1:00 pm
Location: Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94609-1113
Ph: (510) 595-7417
Speaker: Joseph Patrick, co-editor of GegenStandpunkt (Germany)
Just in time for Christmas, the Senate has passed its own version of
the healthcare reform bill, jumping yet another hurdle on the path to
“change” in the way Americans receive and pay for medical care. Yet
controversy continues to rage. On the one side, President Obama has
deemed the bill the single most significant piece of legislation since
the creation of Social Security, and many Democratic lawmakers have
solemnly declared that, despite the many bitter concessions they have
had to make, this is the moment of their legislative lifetimes. On the
other side, Republicans have expressed their utter revulsion at both
the substance of the bill and the manner of its construction. And on
the liberal left, there is disappointment and even disgust at how
politicians have once again failed to put an end to the scandal that is
the current American healthcare system.
Meanwhile, average citizens get to follow the ups and downs of the
negotiations in Congress, listen to the pleas and arguments of big and
small business, weigh the options and come to a conclusion about which
is worse: their current inability to pay for the most basic care or
their inability to pay for compulsory insurance, the risk of financial
ruin posed by a serious illness or by unbearable healthcare costs on
the companies that employ them?
These people would do well to pay attention as to why, despite all
the rancor of the debate, elites on both sides of the aisle regard
healthcare reform to be so urgent. Without far-reaching change, two
things they regard to be much more important than the health of
individual citizens will face impending doom: the nation’s economy and
the solidity of the national budget. On that basis, the population’s
poor bill of health raises some urgent questions for the ruling class:
Is the health of the nation’s competitiveness in danger? Does the
illness of broad swathes of the population represent a disadvantage in
international competition that America can no longer afford? That
requires a solution. How to extend basic care to a greater portion of
the population without imposing unbearable costs on “the economy”,
i.e., the profits of employers, while making sure that America’s
premier growth industry can emerge stronger than ever?
This gives us no reason for joy or even “cautious optimism,” but raises some
unwelcome questions of a more fundamental kind:
Why, right in the middle of the free market economy, is healthcare such a
thoroughly governmental affair?What does the state take care of when it takes
care of the “health of the nation” and why?Why is healthcare always considered
too expensive and in constant need of reform?
The answers to these questions illustrate why the hopes for a
“historic moment” in the history of American healthcare are not only
woefully modest, but hopelessly wrongheaded. We invite you to come and
find out why.
Sponsored by: www.ruthlesscriticism.com
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