It should be universal, for all citizens of the United States of America, and for the citizens of all countries of all the nations that exist on this earth. I consider the right to basic health care as much a right of the human population as the right to own property, own a home, own a car, have a gun, go to school, live without oppression and torture. I consider basic health care an essential part of that remarkable phrase that sums up all human rights: the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Without universal health care for all citizens, the playing field is not fair, and the rules are not fair. Those who are wealthy get the absolute best health care, get pleasures and fulfillment the rest of us do not get. The wealthy get to live longer and enjoy this precious gift of life with less suffering. Those who have a modicum of income are able to afford at least basic health care, and in a pinch, sometimes get more than the basics. They are able to, with effort, pursue their dreams and fulfill their ambitions, obtain the pleasures of life and live long productive lives. Those who have minimal income have none of those advantages. They are often obese, suffering from diabetes, hypertension, heart attacks, strokes, running sores, chronic pain, crippling mental disease, rotten teeth, sapping chronic infection, unhealed itching rashes, short of breath with any exertion, have chronic diarrhea, failing hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys, swollen legs, and in others words, shorter lives full of misery. There is nothing fair about any of that.
OF course, many will say, with some justification, that I am greatly biased on this subject. If I had spent my life as an electrician, banker, carpenter or mechanic, I might have a much different opinion of what health care should be offered to whom. I should understand that life is not fair, and that those who work harder deserver to get more. I believe that these concepts are perfectly correct and that these criticisms are well justified. On the other hand, my answer would be, there is no one more qualified to make this judgment. I grew up as a young child in poverty. We survived only with those foods we were able to grow on our small farm. I did not see meat for the first seven years of my life. We lived on potatoes, beans, tomatoes, eggs and a few fruits. All of my formative years after that were spent in long years of study, while others were out having fun and playing. I spent 28 years of my life in elementary, high, college, graduate, and post graduate education before becoming a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon. I spent my surgical career taking care of lung and esophageal carcinoma patients. I spent long days taking care of chronic debilitating pain and end of life emotions in patients and their families. I suffered as they suffered. I kept looking for every way possible to give every patient a better life, free of pain and loss of function. I sacrificed my family and children, a sorrow I have yet to resolve, in order to provide whatever care my patients needed. I saw it all and took care of it all. After retiring from surgery, I have continued practice taking care of those with minimal or no insurance, providing whatever care we could solicit for them. There is, in my opinion, no person in this nation more qualified to make that assessment which begins this essay. There should be universal health care for all citizens of the United States of America, and all other countries on the face of this earth.
The question is pretty clear. What is most important to us? We know we can’t give everything to all people. We do not have the resources to give everything to everybody, for one thing. There is another more important consideration: giving any person everything that they may want is an abysmal failure. Those who receive doting and hovering care become lazy, demanding, unmotivated, manipulative, and crazy, if we define crazy as including those persons who are unable to be productive members of our human society. That pretty well describes many members of our welfare society today. Not only are they chronically ill in various ways, they are burdens on the rest of our society. We often confuse, in our religions and personal lives, care and concern for others as the need for unconditional love. That is a terrible mistake. We fail to understand that unconditional love is an absolute failure, producing chronic illness and demanding dependency. I am not sure why it is so difficult for our politicians and leaders to understand somewhere, deep in their souls, that the only love that works in human society is tough love. Those of us who receive help and gifts should always be keenly aware that this gift carries with it a price and deep obligation on our parts. We have to respond with effort and productivity, or that gift was wasted. My guess is that politicians keep giving in order to be liked and re-elected, ignorant of the great harm they do when they give without extracting payment for that gift.
If push comes to shove, I would halve the military, get out of most of our involvement in the affairs of all the other countries of the world, stop food stamps, HEAP, and most of those government programs which simply give without asking for payment in return, raise the age for social security, foster college and graduate education, raise taxes greatly on the wealthy, stop allowing no off-shore taxes for those who do most of their business in this country, and demand that those who receive welfare produce some kind of work in return – or they do not get any money. It bears reiteration: the only thing that works in human society is tough love. Anything more or less is a mistake.
I would tax as much as needed, and I would require effort from those who are given additional support. In return, I would provide that basic divine right for the entire human population: access to basic reasonable health care at no additional cost. Anything less is an abject failure of human government.