Morality in the Health Care Debate

A response to the Japan Times Herald article:

Being quite the fan of Ayn Rand myself, I expect that I would be on the mall if I could.

The founding principle of the US and the Republican/Conservative movement is self reliance. The right to be your own man (or woman).

There is, however a balancing principle. The Christian ethic: I am my brother's keeper as exemplified in Cain's question to God.

Either principle taken to extreme is a disaster. The independent man becomes little more than a bear in the forest, while a true Christian gets nailed to a cross by the jealous rivalry between competing interests.

What is the solution?

I would offer the model of the traditional family unit. Husband/wife/children. How does it work? Who has what rights and responsibilities? Where is the balance? This was a short coming of Ayn's philosophy – she only considered the individual, not the relationship – though perhaps if Dagny had kids ...

The modern destruction of the ideal of the nuclear family by relativistic morality where no one understands his or her position in relationships and the prevailing socialist concept of government being the great benefactor of all, muddies the moral waters a great deal.

The American constitution was written to protect us from the monarchic government and to ensure each of our basic rights in the Bill of Rights. But the founding fathers were also socially moral men who understood their obligation to society. To them society was an extension of their own family, with the rights, privileges and responsibilities that ensue. There is no free ride.

Bleeding hearts may call me heartless, but you can only squeeze blood from a turnip for so long before it dies and by the same token, you can only abuse your brothers and sisters in society by your selfish laziness, taking what you want regardless, for so long before the society that you are milking goes dry. This applies to the wall street robber barons as well as the morally irresponsible drug addicts, sexually misaligned, single mothers and those who could not control their physical and emotional urges and now must live with the effect. Why should society put up with your irresponsible lifestyle? It is one thing to support the defenseless children, but quite another to teach and countenance irresponsible adult behavior.

“How can you say that about single mothers? They are the victims.” Really? In some cases of rape perhaps, and society has the ability to care medically for those cases; but in most cases, they are not the victims, they are part and parcel of a slothful society that teaches irresponsible lifestyle choices. The men must also be held accountable. Those who cannot control their snake must bear the cost of their offspring. Life is full of choices. Whether you make the right choice or the wrong choice it is YOUR choice and YOUR responsibility to deal with the results. Children who use skateboards without helmets unfortunately learn that the hard way. So do those with HIV/AIDS. While we do have the resources to care for accident victims and the casualties of life, we do not have the resources to take care of the overwhelming numbers of moral dropouts this degenerating society is producing. This is a classic indicator of a society on the cusp of a fall.

One moral question being asked is, should illegal aliens be covered by medical insurance? The sticking point of course is the word illegal. There seems to be a part in Common Law, which our law is based on, that covers one's use of something or living somewhere that does not belong to them. If, after a certain length of time of use without the owners objection, you can legitimately assert a claim on it. Well, since the US government, who claims ownership over the land these people are living on, seems to be allowing it – the illegal are defacto, no longer illegal. Moreover, these marginally legal residents work, pay taxes and contribute to society and generally have a higher moral standard than most university graduates. It seems that they have earned the right to have medical insurance as they are not generally a burden on society.

Our medical system is set up to care for those in society who have had unfortunate occurrences befall them in the course of a responsible lifestyle. Productive members of society, who for what ever reason must now be cared for. We can easily do that. The occasional unattached child or random victim of fate left out of society for what ever reason can be cared for, with assistance from a public fund, in the Christian spirit; but the general trend of the idea that “society owes me” is doomed to fail. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Do you remember that Kennedy brother?

Do socialized medical systems work? In Russia, yes it does; they have great doctors, mediocre equipment and if you want patient care in the hospital, your family must come in and do it. In England, yes it does. You have relatively good doctors and relatively good equipment and relatively good emergency care. But if you don't have an emergency you need to go through the system and wait your turn. Canada is the same. Both England and Canada have more and more budget limitations so things are breaking down. Private service seems to be becoming more popular. Japan is a bit better but doctors and hospitals are getting more tight and turn away more patients.

Make no mistake, America does already have a 'socialized' medical system supported by taxpayers. Medi-care, Medi-cal (California), the VA and others allow for people to walk-in or be transported by ambulance and get reasonable care. Not the best care or the most up to snuff medical procedures, but reasonable. Of course the government will try to recoup their expense from you, but if you can't pay they won't let you die. It is against the law for a hospital to refuse you service. So, yes illegal aliens, whether from Mexico or Mars, can not be turned away.

The question is, do we want a fully socialized medical care system where I can get all my warts taken care of for free? What a stupid question, of course we do!