Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Why Is Universal Health Care ‘Un-American’?
Last week supporters of health-care reform gathered around the country, including in Austin, TX, where 2,000 people crowded into a downtown church to hear speakers talk about different aspects of the issue. Asked to speak about the ethical dimensions of health care, I tried to go beyond short-term political strategizing and ask more basic questions. This is an edited version of what I said.
Is anyone else here having trouble with the fact that we are even having this conversation? Is anyone else having trouble believing this topic is really controversial? I have been asked to talk about the ethical dimension of health care. Here's one way to frame such a discussion:
If an infant is born to poor parents, would we be more ethical to give medicine to that child so he or she does not die prematurely of preventable diseases, or would we be more ethical if we let the child die screaming in his or her parent's arms so we can keep more of our money?
Or, let's say someone who worked for Enron, and now is penniless, contracted bone cancer. I've been asked to discuss whether we are more ethical if we provide such people medicine that lessens their pain. Or would we be more ethical to let them scream through the night in unbearable agony so we can pay lower taxes?
I can't believe I am standing today in a Christian church defending the proposition that we should lessen the suffering of those who cannot afford health care in an economic system that often treats the poor as prey for the rich. I cannot believe there are Christians around this nation who are shouting that message down and waving guns in the air because they don't want to hear it. But I learned along time ago that churches are strange places; charity is fine, but speaking of justice is heresy in many churches. The late Brazilian bishop Dom Hélder Câmara said it well: "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist." Too often today in the United States, if you talk about helping the poor, they call you Christian, but if you actually try to do something to help the poor, they call you a socialist.
Some of the other speakers today have been asked to address what is possible in the current political climate. I have been asked to speak of our dreams. Let me ask a question. How many of you get really excited about tweaking the insurance system so we just get robbed a little less? (silence) How many of you want universal health care? (sustained applause) I realize that insurance reform is all that's on the table right now, and it can be important to choose the lesser of evils when that alone is within our power in the moment. But we also need to remember our dream. I believe the American dream is not about material success, not about being having the strongest military. The American dream is that every person might have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
It's amazing to hear Christians who talk about the right to life as though it ends at birth. They believe every egg has a right to hatch, but as soon as you're born, it's dog eat dog. We may disagree on when life begins, but if the right to life means anything it means that every person (anyone who has finished the gestation period) has a right to life. And if there is a right to life there must be a right to the necessities of life. Like health care.
I believe the American dream was not about property rights, but human rights. Consider the words of this national hymn:
"O beautiful for patriot's dream that sees beyond the years. Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears."
Doesn't that sound like someone cared about the poor? There are those who consider paying taxes an affront, but listen to these words:
"O Beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life."
"Mercy more than life" -- have you ever noticed those words before? Supporting universal health care does not make you socialist or even a liberal, it makes you a human being. And it makes you an ambassador for the American dream which, in the mind of Thomas Paine, was a dream for every human being, not just Americans. As we struggle to get health care to all people, we may have to settle for the lesser of two evils, but remember your dream -- the true American dream, a human dream. Whatever we win through reform is just first step toward a day when every human being has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
- Posted in
154 Comments so far
Show All"in the United States, if you talk about helping the poor, they call you Christian, but if you actually try to do something to help the poor, they call you a socialist."
Yes, and you should be proud to do it, and proud to be a socialist--or whatever label anyone puts on it.
Totally agree.
Instead of trying to denounce these labels, start embracing them. Stand up and say "yep, guess that makes me a socialist."
I notice the author's church is in Dumbfuckistan, Texas, and he's still getting applause for single payer?
Capitalism is like cancer. It feeds and feeds on its host until it eventually kills the host and does itself in.
Dumbfuckistan, Texas
Please stop showing your ignorance on this site. Ignorance is like cancer. It feeds and feeds on its host until it eventually kills the host and does itself in.
Sorry, but the state of Texas is an embarrassment to this country. Don't they have the highest execution rate in the country?
Let this place secede and see how long they last with their belief systems. I've traveled all over the south and I've never met such huge numbers of backwards people. It's like they all need brain transplants. Don't believe in global warming? Great - let your fields go to dustbowl status. Don't believe in science? No problem - go live off the grid and see how long you last without any technological inputs. They can just pray their way through their illnesses and diseases. They don't need science, right?
Many parts of the south look like areas of the third world. And yet these people cling to their guns and their gawds and think it's more important to stop 2 gay guys from getting married than it is to have the government provide them with a jobs program or health care. You do the math.
I don't harbor any fantasies about this country being a place of tolerance, openness, fairness, or compassion. And even if I did, Texas wouldn't be on my list of those states that are included.
Your analysis of Texas, based on the few who've created the sad state of the state, along with the whacko christians, could be the same for the U.S. of A, based on the few who've screwed it up, along with the whacko christians. Just as there are millions of us in the country wanting the country fixed, there are millions of great people in Texas feeling the same way we do about the country, and about their mutilated state. You paint with a far too wide brush.
If Texas secedes, won't be long before it (again) becomes a part of Mexico.
Careful, you're insulting Mexico with this comment.
Unhappy Texas Resident (Prisoner)
Austin may well be the only worthwhile city in Texas.
That's because most of the people in Austin don't come from Texas.
Although I am a Left Coast-er, I would avoid using sweeping generlizations about Texas. Just like America in general, there are lots of good folks in Texas. Molly Ivins, was a great persoan and a Texan. One of my musical heroes, Willie Nelson, is a native Texan.
Texas is only a reflection of much of America, my friend, like it or not. Even here in California there are plenty of shallow, ignorant, racist, narrow-minded, materialistic, selfish, callous, elitist, hypocrites. However I cannot make a generalization about all people here.
You don't have to tell me there are clueless wankers in California. I live in San Francisco and just 10 miles out of town you run into Xtian freaks. It's like a girl can't even leave town anymore without bumping into a magical thinker.
Have you met anyone you do like? Come on, please try to see the good in the people around you. There really is a lot to see!
It's my guess that a good number of the people in the world see the USA as Dumbfuckistan.
And they'd be right!
If you listen to the right, the "reasoning" against socialism is that it is "forcing" someone to help another. They look at NOT having the choice to help or not as "Un-American". On the other hand volunteering to help another implies choice. Choice is good and so is American. You hear that in arguments against single payer. "Sick poor people should be helped by charities" is something I've heard more than once.
On another level there is probably some basic survivalist fear going on also. "Yea if my family is doing OK I'll help that poor sick baby. But if my family is hurtin' then that poor baby is on its own".
Both bits of reasoning work fine as long as you believe that you will always be on the giving end and not the receiving end. But then again the American "Dream/Myth" says if you play by the rules and work hard things will work out. (Yea right...)
I'm not saying this reasoning is right or wrong. But I think that is their reasoning, and it is going to be hard change it.
Well, the author of this piece is still stuck in "American dream" mode. It's hard to believe people are still stuck on that fantasy that somehow Amerikans can "have it all" without a shred of cognizance that this means other people elsewhere will suffer so that Amerikans can keep their materialistic and unending consumerist lifestyles going.
That Amerikan dream b.s. feeds the arrogance and ignorance of people here. We are "better" than other people. We don't "need" other people. We have nothing to learn from anybody else, we just bully our way around the world telling everybody it's our way or the highway. We refuse to invite single payer administrators from other countries over here to have discussions about their programs. Instead, we "go it alone." Even Obfraud said our health care system will be "uniquely Amerikan." Watch out!
Anything "uniquely Amerikan" means a) workers and the poor will get the shaft; and b) wealth will move upwards instead of horizontally.
There is nothing sane, sensible, compassionate, or tolerant about anything "uniquely Amerikan." Everything we touch turns to shit. And it all benefits the wealthy. That's the definition of "uniquely Amerikan."
NC-Tom: Your quote about survivalist fear - "But if my family is hurtin' then that poor baby is on its own".
I would call that a post birth abortion.
[I would call that a post birth abortion.]
Yah, but according to the religous right once they're born their souls can make it to heaven. Before birth they can't be baptized so they're doomed to hell/purgatory...
I always wondered why the religious right cared so little about the little goobers once they were born. Thanks for that noteworthy tidbit. I had never thought of that. It explains a lot, in some religiously, perverted way.
Very perverted. I learned the about the concept in Catholic school, it's one of the things that turned me away from following an organized faith. The idea that a loving god would damn children who had not been baptized by a priest before they died was really fucked up. When I voiced my concern, the nun who taught the class said that she was one of the brides of Christ who would go to purgatory in the afterlife and care for those infants. I thought she was beyond mad, but apparently some of the nuns think that's exactly what they're living for; or dying for...
I agree with NC-Tom's analysis but would add my own take on this. In addition to the go-it-yourself ideal that is obviously in play here, I think for many people, the idea that tomorrow other people will get something that they themselves, their child or mom or grandpa, didn't get, is so painful that it is unbearable.
They don't want to accept that they were snookered into playing the fool by following the rules. The rules have to remain inviolate for them. Otherwise, to see others getting, that which may have cost their parents, partners or children their lives or put them into bankruptcy or nearly so, is absolutely, intolerably unfair.
I think when speaking with such, who hold these almost classic libertarian ideas, the issue of fairness must be addressed, reasonable but compassionately.
Good luck!
"Sick poor people should be helped by charities" is something I've heard more than once.
Many USans abuse charity, using it to rationalize their exploitation of people and their plunder of the planet. Socialism is the proper antidote to this malignant cancer. Socialism says look, we see the pros and the cons of charity, and we're going to keep the pros and squish the cons. This is called progress - something USans are allergic to.
The USA..not so much a country than a flea market, where lives are bought and sold to the highest bidder.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
I recall that C.S. Lewis, beloved of many many Christian conservatives, once said that his reading of the Gospels led him to think a Christian society would have to be (like it it not) socialistic in some respects. In "What Christians Believe" Richard Harries writes (p.141), "If there ever was a time when Christian love for neighbour could be expressed simply in person to person terms or by founding some new institution like a school or a hospital, this is no longer the case."
And this seems to me to be the heart of the argument. Some accept this reality and others do not.
Speaking of Christianity: It has been commented through the decades, that the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth was clearly a socialist. Just reading the four gospels (although I am not a Christian, but rather an atheist), the actual accounts of what the man did and said, clearly shows he was a full-blown leftie socialist.
Let's see: he kicked the banksters out of the temple grounds, he dressed in very modest attire, he lived in poverty, he advocated for the poor and oppressed; he said that rich people will go to hell; he said that all riches should be given to the poor; he did not exclude anyone and made sure all were fed (loaves and fishes); he forgave criminals and welcomed un-desireables, he was the ultimate non-violent protestor; he denounced the religious and political establishment for their corruption, greed and callous evil.
He warned about hypocrites and those who would claim to speak in his name, yet were the most evil of all. The current "christian conservatives" are exactly those people he warned about. How ironic
He was a socialist rabble-rouser and that is why he was executed by the state. The case of Jesus is a textbook case.
Every now and then, I visit the websites of those "other guys" to see how they might respond to things like this. It never ceases to amaze me how they have an answer for everything:
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article2925.html
These people are something else.
Sioux
SOCIALIST: That's how I see it, too. He was also a peace advocate, one who understood that turning the other cheek would prevent many conflicts, on small and large scales. That advice was never followed; in fact, its antithesis is what's championed in too many modern churches (particularly the Southern Baptist ones) today.
Socialist: Thanks for your comments. It is ironic because as a atheist/socialist, you know more about the true intent of Christianity than most Christians. In fact your comments will shock the vast majority of "the clueless faithful".
Look, with all due respect, let's just can all the Jesus talk, OK?
Yeah, He may have had some natural charisma... He never met a baby He didn't want to kiss, and He's good on His feet.
But, Strike One: He's not a Team Player; Strike Two: He's not Pragmatic; Strike Three: He won't budge on the Beatitudes.
Conclusion: UNELECTABLE!
· Yr Obd't Servant
Perhaps we should all work together and kill the beast..
STOP BUYING things...
I would like to see a stop shopping on Sunday thing get legs. It would be a Christian Thing to do and just a nice thing to do..
Yes, acknowledge that the vote you cast in the marketplace is more influential than the vote you cast in the ballot box.
You are right the best vote is the vote cast with your feet and or your pocketbook.. The beast will respond to its pocketbook..Capitalism works both ways,. you must force a change. You can talk and protest all you want, the fact is the government has been taken over by the corp. which if you have not noticed has the same constitutional rights as you and me now..We are living in a fascist country that is run for the benefit of the corp. This includes of course the glorification of the war machine.
We say starve em out..
You can't "stop buying things" forever.
Taking a liberal approach to a systemic problem won't work.
It's capitalism that is the problem. The solution, therefore, is socialism.
How do you get to socialism from here? I think you know the answer to that. And it doesn't involve "not buying stuff for a day."
Stop looking for capitalist solutions to capitalist problems.
I agree 100% with you! Capitalism does not work for 95% of the population. Yes it works for the wealthy and their corporate sleaze, but has never worked for working people, the disabled, or the poor.
On August 24th I attended a "Town Hall Meeting" sponsored by my Congressman in the 20th Congressional District. He reiterated his opposition for a single payer healthcare system stating his concern for the future of the insurance companies!
He even asked; "What's wrong with the HMOs making an HONEST profit?" Obviously he hasn't a clue as to how the HMOs make their money or he's been bought off! ( he has received in excess of $130,000 from the corporate healthcare leeches)
It is painfully clear to me that the Democrats are NO different than the Republicans and cannot be trusted! When 3-5% of the total population controls the government, the economy, the news media, the entertainment industry, even the churches... well that is NOT a true democracy! Anyone for a viable, corporate free THIRD PARTY?
Voting for a Third Party would not matter. The US is a non-functional "democracy" whose institutional structures will continue to ensure the status quo for the privileged elite. The US constitution must be amended to enable the people to "impeach" corporate owners who take illgitimate profits so that the funds can be returned to the communities from which they are siphoned. Perhaps using eminent domain, or focused emergency taxing authority.
Just what IS an HONEST profit.? It seems to be an oxymoron. If one profits off making a product, it means all along the line one is PAYING others less then what the work or material is worth in order to PROFIT.
Under our present healthcare system there is probably no such thing as an honest profit. Especially if you are talking about the profits of the HMOs and the Pharmaceutical monopolies.
We are paying through the nose so that the CEOs of these big corporations can make (NOT EARN) six and seven figure incomes! While the profits of the HMOs skyrockets upwards, the quality of our healthcare continues to go down! It doesn't take a rocket science to figure out the co-relation.
We do need a viable, corporate funding free political party that represents the interests of working people and those of us who do not earn huge six and seven figured incomes. The way to a socialistic and more humane society is for the people to come to understand that there are solutions to the madness that U.S. capitalism has shoved down our throats!
It is my humble opinion that Jesus would have opted for a socialist type of system and his disdain for the rich was made clear in the verse where he stated; "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven." In my view Jesus was more than a Messiah, he was a great organizer and revolutionary!
Mestizo Warrior, Yes, 3-5% of Americans do control our government, but if 3-5% of Americans got off their fannies and demonstrated peacefully about healthcare or whatever, we could change things.
It's way past time for President Obama to stop floundering around with his Presidency and come out with a bold plan to completely remedy the hole the United States has dug itself into.
Please read Dave Lindorff's Blog page: "Obama's Narrowing Window of Opportunity." He's got it all together!!! You won't believe how simple the solution could be if the President really meant what he said during his campaign.
You can find it here:
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/?q=node/362
Because the corporate oligarchy says so, of course.
Because it wouldn't allow a small group of people to profit from the suffering of a large group of people.
While waiting for my wife late yesterday afternoon at the dentist's office in what is mainly a liberal town, I got into a discussion with the receptionist about Universal Health Care. She stated right off the bat that she hated Universal Health Care because she would have to pay more than what she is already paying. It did no good to inform her that even though she may pay a little more in taxes, all her basic health care needs would be met. When I asked her about the 45 million or so Americans who do not have health insurance and the 18,000 Americans who die because they do not have that coverage, she replied "I have double insurance." As Rev. Rigby might inquiry, whatever happened to love thy neighbor? She also opined that she could never conceive that the government could be lying about what occurred on 09/11/01. When I told my wife this afterwards, she remarked that the woman is probably a regular viewer of Fox "News".
I found this article disappointing. It's clear there is grassroots opposition to health care reform and it looks like a lot of it is coming from God-fearin' Christians. So, what are these folks thinking? What's their motivation? Where are they coming from?
The right Reverend Rigby is preaching to the choir, but its voices are drowned by the massive sound systems of the nation's megachurches.
Sadly, the 20th century church began to shift away from the social gospel because of Marxist-Leninist atheism. Now even the communist party USA takes no religious position.
Rigby is preaching to the choir. But, he is only doing so because traditional black churches kept the social gospel and developed leaders for what is called Black Liberation Theology. White churches were lured away from the social gospel into a self-absorbed theology of wealth and success from the teachings of Billy Sunday and eventually to the politically hungry Billy Graham.
As a religious socialist I understand the need to reconstruct the social gospel tradition into something like the various liberation theologies. Perhaps, they can be brought into one umbrella?
21st Century Christianity in America is in need of a new reformation along these lines.
Errol speaks of FOX news. I am glad to announce that I have finally found a Doctor who does not have Fox news on in the waiting room.
Now I need a decent restaurant (one my kids will go to) that does not have FOX sports on.
Some Americans are so ignorant and brainwashed, I think they're beyond redemption. I've attempted to educate some conservatives I know- my family and friends of the family- about the realities of our profit-based health care "system." I sent the CD article by Wendell Potter (a speech he gave outlining what insurance industry execs do to kill health care reform) to one of my mother's friends, who is on Medicare. Her response was that I should be thankful that my parents have Medicare and Blue Cross Insurance so that I don't have to give them money if they get sick. I told her they're doing well in spite of health insurance, not because of it. (I don't have insurance, by the way.) She keeps arguing that she doesn't support health care coverage for people who don't work and don't "deserve" it. I've asked her repeatedly what the thousands who've lost their jobs are supposed to do, or why someone should not be allowed to change careers or start a business. She also says "the grass is always greener" meaning that what we have in America is actually superior to what the Canadians, French, Swiss, etc., have. People like this woman are unreachable. Unfortunately, there are large numbers of them in our country.
Yes, many people believe the propaganda they have been bombarded with for decades; most folks have never been outside of the US, have not been properly educated (or mis-educated) about politics or public policy, and are inundated daily by spin, mis-information, and even outright lies from political leaders, business leaders, the TV and newspapers etc.
Despite that, a majority of Americans have supported single-payer for several decades. Something is very wrong with the picture. In a so-called democracy the people are supposed to steer public policy right?
NMLib: Your quote"...she doesn't support health care coverage for people who don't work and don't "deserve" it."
This is the strange thing about those who condemn people on social assistance or have met some sort of misfortune. Ask them, "What do you mean by 'work'?"
People I know, who are on assistance and/or have no paid employment, work their ****s off to survive. The real "freeloaders" are rare and not that different than the freeloaders who "work" in corporations such as insurance companies.
I guess stay-at-home moms don't "work." Children don't "work." Students don't "work." How does your mother's friend get off deciding who "deserves" what? What does she really know about the Canadian system and the Canadian way of life???
I'd like to know what happens when you pepper someone like her with tough questions like that.
What happens is they just keep repeating the BS and lies they're fed by whatever media outlet they follow. She always says, "I worked for everything I have." Apparently, once you are 65 and retired you should have access to health care- or if you are lucky enough to have a job that still provides coverage, you're deserving to. The rest of us be damned. I've tried to explain to her that ALL Americans are one major illness away from bankruptcy. You can't reason with these people; that's the point. And, of course, she is a regular church goer, too.
"I worked for everything I have." Sure she has and everyone else has too.
Wow, you do have an uphill journey for sure.