“The fundamental truth about health care in every country is that national values, national character, determine how each system works.”
Prof. Uwe Reinhardt, Princeton Professor & Health Care Economist
“I think health care is a privilege. I wouldn’t call it a right.”
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC
Drop Dead
Whether or not it’s a crisis that millions of Americans are uninsured or underinsured, that thousands lose their health insurance every day, or that tens of thousands die every year because they lack health insurance is a matter of perspective. The same goes for the economic crisis, the foreclosure crisis, or any other crisis.
Depending on your perspective, there’s nothing wrong with hundreds of thousands, or even millions losing their homes to foreclosure. (Even if deregulating the finance sector made it easier to sell them time bombs, in the form of mortgages, that went off long after the people who really matter made an easy buck and moved on.) There’s nothing wrong with millions of people having no health insurance, and thus no access to affordable, quality care. There’s nothing wrong, because it’s all right, and there’s no need to do anything about it.
That’s why I have to disagree with the following assertion, from Simon Johnson and James Kwak.
