Posted by
Mike on Thursday, September 17, 2009 7:19:37 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
The current health care debate brings out the need to go beyond a
simple redistributive model so that there can be real health care
reform.
Private health insurance derives from the capitalist
system. Insurance corporations are allowed to exist and regulated by
the state for the purpose of making a profit for investors. Thus there
is an incentive to cut costs by not providing adequate medical
services. This is analogous to corporations outsourcing jobs overseas
to bypass local taxation, environmental and safety standards, and to
obtain a cheap source of labor. Many manufacturing jobs have already
been lost in America because of this. This is not the fault of labor
unions which protect workers. As there are no guarantees in life, the
outsourcing of jobs happens because workers have the power to
effectively demand justice. With this power comes responsibility, and
the risk of possible job insecurity.
Moving beyond the
capitalistic model, there is a need for all those directly affected by
corporate activities, whether workers, consumers, or people living in
the local community, to become stakeholders and actively involved in
the decision making process. In the case of plant relocation, for
example, an enterprise organized as a cooperative would factor in the
harmful effects on workers and their families. Decisions could then be
made perhaps for managers and workers to take a pay cut in order to
make the business more competitive, or perhaps to scale back production
for local consumption only. At least these alternatives would be better
than stopping production altogether.
The same should apply with
health care. The current proposals will not work. They will require
more government spending and government mandates which will drive
private health insurers out of business. Neither the American families
nor the health care providers will be given a stake in decision making.
That will all be done by a government czar.