US fidgets mightily over health care
Fellow Americans, we got it all wrong about health care. One need only to look around outside our map. Universal care (call it “single payer”) is not something socialist (let alone communist) countries impose on their oppressed citizens, a cause of their economic demise and bankruptcy, a sign of their condition as banana republics.
Across the continents, public health is not even a partisan issue. It is something that conservative lawmakers do not dare question, as much as they would not question the sheer existence of public schools or firefighters and police officers. Can you imagine if a police department was a business? (If you want security, pay for your own; that might happen in banana republics.)
What is more basic than health care, and why are Americans so blind not to see it that way? In most countries, business and public options are not incompatible, but complementary (just like private schools, country clubs, and bodyguards): There are companies that feed on the market for nice, individual rooms and shorter waits for non-emergency tests or surgeries.
Many employers offer private insurance to their employees. It’s a privilege, not the norm. But no one, and I mean no one, should anguish over medical services or be ruined by medical bills. Look around, Americans. Leave the politics aside and demand what should be (and is, in most places) a basic state service.
Carolina Lopez-Ruiz Columbus Columbus