Universal Healthcare

Hi!

It feels like I've blogged about this before, but I don't think I have... The closest I've come is this post, titled WWJD. I think about this a lot and have written about it in emails and on Facebook; that's probably why.

Anyway, I'm in favor of universal healthcare and I don't care if it's called socialist. My WWJD post makes the distinction between socialism and communism, so I won't repeat it. The reason I'm in favor of universal healthcare is primarily economic. I don't doubt that it'll be expensive. What most people, politicos and pundits alike, are failing to consider is that healtcare isn't just an expense, it's an investment.

How many people are under-productive because they don't have insurance to cover basic prevention and spend more time being sick? How many people are under-utilized because they can't afford to leave a dead-end job because they need their insurance? How our economy would benefit if this under-productivity and under-utilization were eliminated is never part of the equation. The benefits are usually only defined in term of morality and human dignity, which (I'm sorry to say) doesn't often factor into the return-on-investment ratio.

In the short-run, yes, it'll be expensive and long-run benefits will only be truly realized if choice is reduced. So what? STOP BEING SO SELFISH!!! The government doesn't have a duty to all of us as individuals, the government has a duty to all of us as a society. Being a part of a society means occasionally having to make a personal sacrifice for the good of that society. Our soldiers sometimes have to make the ultimate sacrifice. The least the rest of us can do is sacrifice a few choices.

Thanks,
Matt