In the ongoing and seemingly chaotic health reform debate, there is remarkably little attention being paid to the underlying philosophy that would underpin a reformed health care system. What are the substantive goals of a reformed health system? What are the principles upon which it should be based? Is it all about cost-effective and affordable health care? Or improving the nation’s health statistics? Or providing some form of meaningful universal coverage?
Instead, the focus has largely been on cost with some attention to issues of quality and access. Health reform has become such an apparently daunting task that we have difficulty taking a step back and asking some fundamental questions. Part of the problem involves the American ethos. Nurtured by over 200 years of rugged individualism and ongoing cultural changes, we respond warmly to “rags to riches” stories. We often reflect the attitude: “I pulled myself up by my bootstraps, why can’t you?” What we don’t speak up about enough is how we want to treat each other as a society.
The goal of a reformed health care system should be of course improved health both individually and collectively. But with reform should also come an improved sense of confidence and security. For this to be achieved, we need to have more dialogue about what we really want as a society when it comes to health care. Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in the American psyche: health care reform ultimately depends on how much we care about each other.
Tags: american individualism, american psyche, american society, Health Reform
