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Ashlyn Finnie
Philosophy
Health care Reform
Currently in our politics there is a very fiery debate about the Health care
reform, also known as “ObamaCare”. There are many different ethical and moral
disagreements with this issue To begin this debate we would like to touch on
several ethical dilemmas posing both for and against this issue on health care.
According to Ethical egoism do we feel it is our absolute duty to help the sick?
We will discuss why and why not this is our duty as citizens. In order to
understand the law on health care we mush also understand the Governments roll
in society in the means of passing and enforcing laws. We will first discuss why
we should not reform health care followed by why we should.
What exactly is Government? The Government was originally created to
secure and protect the God-given inalienable natural rights of the people. Natural
rights are our right to freedom, autonomy, and self Government. Therefore it is
morally wrong to allow our Government to infringe on those rights by controlling
what we do rather than protecting what we do. Government programs that transfer
or redistribute your hard earned money are immoral because it violates our natural
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Philosophy
right to have control over our own actions and possessions. So ultimately theft is
morally wrong! We are a free country and we must respect the freedom and
autonomy of EACH member of society. If one feels that they want to create a
program to help out those who can not afford healthcare than more power to them.
but we can not enforce a law based off of morality by giving the Government the
power to take our money and then decide what they feel is best to cure our problem
in health care. If we take a deeper look into Government programs such as social
security, the schools systems and medicare we can see that none of the above have
been successful and have in fact disappointed our society. we need to protect the
power of the people instead of giving the Government more power!
Health care is in fact private property. It is a very sad but true statement but
no Doctor should be forced to give free treatment. The skills, education and
equipment are all the doctors individual private property. They themselves have
spent thousand of dollars on there education, equipment, and overhead costs to run
there practice. No one has the natural right not own someone else's property. Meg
McArdle stated, “People have no obligation to perform labor for others. I may not
[justly or legally] force a surgeon to save my mother at gunpoint”. Health care is a
service. Therefore it should be treated as any other service as a mutual agreement
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Philosophy
between the customer and worker what will be done and how much it will cost
them to do it, just like a car mechanic. We can not exploit healthcare, the moment
we do so we will lose Doctors and quality. Without people willing to be Doctors,
we have nothing. Medical care unfortunately is not and will not ever be an infinite
resource. Treating health care as if it is infinite is illogical and impossible.
The Health care reform will drastically change and effect the medical staff.
The public options such as Medicare are meant for the uninsured and a smaller
percentage of people. The moment we are all under a Government program doctors
will not be able to afford to run machines or even order certain equipment and
treatments. Medicare pays doctors 20% to 30% less than private plans, on average.
That would come directly out of the wallet of a hard working citizen whom is
paying to run there job. Doctors' incomes will decline by as much as 15% to 20%
depending on their specialty. We can not allow moral rules to be absolute. We
must remember where we came from to understand where we are going. We left
King Henry in Great Britain to flea from high taxes and Government control! We
should stick to our roots and remember what Thomas Jefferson stated, "A wise and
frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave
them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement,
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Philosophy
and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned." Now that we
have shown you the ethical and moral issues against healthcare let us flip and play
the devils advocate.
The other side of the fence is that we should indeed have health care reform.
Currently right now there are thousands of people suffering because they currently
have a disease or condition and can not be covered by a health insurance company.
Pre existing conditions have caused a huge uproar against health care companies
and the right for these people to be treated. Why would be insure the healthy yet
we do not insure the sick? Obama stated a very humble and remarkable quote as of
follows, “Everybody here understands the desperation that people feel when they're
sick. And I think everybody here is profoundly sympathetic and wants to make
sure that we have a system that works for all Americans.”
Health care is Essential. If you look at other essential open to all services
such as the police and fire department you will see a system that in-fact helps
everyone! It is a needed commodity, Just like these other things. Therefore, we
should include the care of it in our taxes. Just like we do these other necessities.
When your house catches on fire you are not then forced to find insurance, than if
or if not they will put the fire out. They simply put out the fire as a service from
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Philosophy
our taxes! Currently the insurance companies are in control of this money right
now. They take up to 20% out of every dollar that we put into insurance, using
them for reasons other then insurance but mostly for profit.
Government should take care of the medical finances. Reason being they only
bother two to three cents for administrative cost. Thus meaning more money for
peoples health. This is eliminating the profit that the private insurance companies
desire. The proposal for health care reform is definitely a utilitarianism act. He is
looking to help the nation as a whole, to benefit everyone. Although they will have
to sacrifice something there is no true harm being done. It’s not even universal
health care that we are pushing for but to fight against the Psychological Egoism
that these private insurance companies show. They are only looking for profit,
profit that over 45 thousand people a year die from because they cant afford it. The
insurance companies have you pay monthly stipends, and you expect them to take
care of you when a problem comes around, because you took care of them every
month. But here is where the Psychological Egoism comes into play. They find
loopholes that help them avoid covering you, in return meaning more profit for
them.
Ashlyn Finnie
Philosophy
As you can see both sides of the fence are very heated and plausible. Moral
issues are very hard to come to an absolute. The question stands, Is it or is it not
our absolute duty to help the sick? And if it is, how will we do so? In order to give
to some we must take from others. deciding where the line is drawn is up to the
people.
Work Cited
Foy, Andrew. "The Moral Case Against Health Care Reform." American Thinker.
Web. 10 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/03/the_moral_case_against_health.html>.
Gottlieb, Scott. "How ObamaCare Will Affect Your Doctor - WSJ.com." Business
News & Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - Wsj.com. Web. 11 Apr. 2011.
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124208383695408513.html>.
"Health Care Is Not a Natural Right." Sense of Events. Web. 11 Apr. 2011.
<http://senseofevents.blogspot.com/2009/09/health-care-is-not-natural-right.html>.
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Philosophy
"Health Care Seen as a Moral Issue - JSOnline." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Breaking News, Sports, Business, Watchdog Journalism, Multimedia in
Wisconsin. Web. 13 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/70084497.html>.