Discussion: Health Care as a Public Good
Should health care be a public good? The question hung over the quiet room, as everyone took turns glancing at the clock with a hour left on it to debate the issue, and I mean what a question to try and reach a conclusion on in such a short amount of time. Members of the class began throwing out points, as others began making notes on the board, and to present our conclusion I feel the best way to present it is just like in class, gathering the points together into why health care should or should not be seen as a public good.
The first point as to why health care should be seen as a public good is that it is seen as the moral thing to do. Then to press a little further, to not support this, would to acknowledge the underserved are those who would benefit most from this. Beyond that it is widely seen as such in several European countries, which was envied by several. The economic argument for this is based on the hope that preventative care would offset the cost the expensive treatments associated with preventable conditions. Other point on affordability being that with government oversight profits could be capped to sensible margins, and they would have major negotiating power to bring down the price of equipment and prescriptions.
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Other concerns they had with in particular profit capping and government negotiation on price would that there is a potential for diminishing of quality in staff and goods. The final key point to mention is that this concept will be nearly impossible to pass onto the American public, seeing as it is a socialist policy, it would be nearly impossible to implement as it can be twisted to seen as anti-American, anti-capitalist, and