Society Verses Individuals: Healthcare is a right, not a privilege

August 26th, 2009 by | Country: United States (home) | 3 Comments »

I want to put my traveling experiences in Israel aside for the moment.  Two nights ago, I was reading Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves.  I came across a quote that meant a lot to me and put a star by it.

“[Europeans] believe that collectively creating the society of their dreams is more important than allowing individuals to create the personal empire of their dreams.”

This quote explained exactly why I adore the European culture.  The Europeans in general are more concerned about having a comfortable, modest, and good quality life than having a big pocket full of money to own the most unnecessary and expensive products such as Mercedes, necklaces with hundreds of diamonds, and multi-million dollar mansions.  In general, Europeans are obviously less materialistic than the Americans.  Most European countries have universal health care that pleases their citizens.  Many are willing to pay high taxes to provide childcare, education, and retirement.  Rick Steves said in his book that he asked a European friend, “How can you Swiss people be so docile about paying such high taxes?”

Rick Steves’ friend’s response was absolutely beautiful:

“What’s it worth to live in a society where there are no homelessness, no hunger, and where everybody enjoy equal access to quality healthcare and education.”

Now let’s go back to quote about Europeans believing that “collectively creating the society of their dreams is more important.”  This is exactly about what we’re debating today in the U.S.  Which one is more important?  Collectively creating the society of our dreams or allowing individuals to create the personal empire of their dreams. Let’s examine these two values.  Creating a society of our dreams means caring for each other in their country and having a common good.  They believe that they should help ensure that everyone has access to good quality healthcare and education, and the government should care for the needy, fund the arts, youth groups, and study abroad opportunities by paying high taxes.  They want everyone to have a good quality of life, not just themselves.  Allowing individuals to create the personal empire of their dreams means that the individuals have the freedom to create big corporations, earn the highest possible profit, and decide who can have access to health care and who can’t, and many individuals don’t think about other people surrounding them unlike the Europeans in general.

This morning, when I opened up my computer and went to CNN.com, I was saddened to see the death of Ted Kennedy, the man who believed that “… every American … will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.”  This is what the Europeans believe.  All citizens of their countries have the right to have a good quality of life, and it’s not a privilege to have a good quality of life.

As someone who have been to Europe, I can attest that people whom I personally know are benefiting from universal healthcare.  I know one cochlear implant user who is able to receive processor upgrades and FMs without a battle from the government while my family’s insurance company rejected paying for my sister’s processor upgrade and an FM system.  I have a friend who has MS and has to take daily shots that cost millions of dollars for the rest of her life, and she says that she is very fortunate that she has help from the government, or otherwise she would be in much worse condition or not living today.  Many are very satisfied with how the government is running the healthcare in their own country; however there are certainly a few countries that are exceptions, such as Greece which apparently has very crappy government.

While many countries in Europe have well-run universal healthcare, there are certainly some other countries in the world, such as Canada and New Zealand, where the government-run healthcare is not so great.  Both of them have wait lists for many of the medical procedures because the government will fund only a certain amount per year.  I know a few who had to wait a few years to get a cochlear implant due to a long wait list.  Plus, in some countries, government will not provide funds for a second implant.

So, traveling to other countries and staying with host families is allowing me to learn about their societies and political beliefs which allows me to form educated opinions.  Because I’ve personally seen both sides – free market health care and government-run health care, I believe that neither system is perfect, but the most important thing is that everyone has the right to have access to healthcare.  I truly believe that Obama’s plan is a great compromise of both worlds – free market healthcare and government-run healthcare, and it can be effective as it gives people the choice to go with private health insurance or to go with public health care – in whichever people feel more confident.  The most important message that I want to say is that I want to see President Obama, other politicians, and advocates continuing to fight for people’s rights to have access to health care in honor of Ted Kennedy.

 

3 Comments

August 31, 2009 at 10:36 pm

AWESOME article. Great summary, and way to work travel into this. It’s totally true, I lived in Norway for a couple of years and my kids used their healthcare system. Night and day to ours in the US. And by that I mean OURS SUCKS.

Was lucky enough to interview Rick Steves recently and discuss his new book a bit. Really appreciate his perspective, good quotes you pulled out.

Cheers,
Kim

Bubby

September 7, 2009 at 5:48 pm

Hi Rachel
The pictures are awesome!!!! We had a fabulous time with you in Israel…I hope it continued with Yon and his family. Please email me and tell me all about it! I cant wait to see the rest of your pictures!!!

November 2, 2011 at 10:48 am

[...] is because I have been able to see which systems work or don’t work well.  For instance, I learned about different health cares in various countries and which systems worked effectively and…  Living in countries such as France where environmental laws were stricter gave me a better [...]

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