Don’t fix it

This from an opinion piece written by a self-described politically conservative physician:  “we have the greatest medical care in the world, bar none.” She goes on to decry those who “don’t know what they’re dismantling”, which I assume is a reference to those who would dismantle our current system of retail healthcare delivery, not the care itself. I’m unaware of anyone who’s upset that our microscopes are too powerful or our ultrasound images too clear.

I was reminded of the opinion piece this morning while reading about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s initiative to establish universal internet access.

Holy Mother of God, I thought. We live in a country where internet access is gaining traction as a “human right” at the same time that tens of millions lack health insurance and study after study has shown that tens of thousands die each year as the direct result of that lack.

Was the conservative physician influenced at all by Mitt Romney who in 2012 said that “we don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance”? Did she believe that?

Or is this about the wider “nanny state” debate? Too much government, too many handouts.

If so, I have to wonder how she feels about single-payer fire suppression and single-payer police protection. I have to wonder why it’s right and proper that we pool resources to keep our buildings sound, but not our bodies.

Or did she mean that our healthcare system’s best and brightest will seek greener pastures if their line of work becomes as unprofitable as, say, dumping water on burning buildings?

If that was her point, how dismal. But point taken. And a refreshing change of pace it is from the marketing fiction that 21st century “healers” are motivated primarily by altruism and only secondarily by money.

Business is business, after all.

Just like universal internet access.