Mouse Talk: Health Care
Health care is a moral issue. Health care is not an economic issue.
But surely, the house cat argues, it has to be paid for; doesn’t that make it an economic issue?
Mouse answers: economic goods – automobiles, televisions, electric back scratchers, and similar nice-to-haves – flow into the possession of those who can afford them. The desire to possess them can be satisfied better by those who are economically successful. To increase one's power to acquire them might be regarded as an economic incentive to work hard. So we must ask whether health care should be similarly regarded as a reward to successful people that is denied to the less successful.
To help decide that question we ought to substitute for the words “health care” the much more understandable single word “life.” Should economically successful people be granted more life than others?
House cat replies: If you put it that way you certainly have a point, but even if I give you your word for it, wouldn’t you say that in the great scheme of things, it’s all about life. Life would seem to be the ultimate incentive and health care just one of the ways it translates into a practical goal.
Mouse paused, deep in thought. Several answers to house cat’s logic trickled through his mind, but for each of them, an equally logical rejoinder also cropped up. Finally, he realized that moral issues and economic issues are obedient to different strains of logical thought, and that they both begin with the answer to a question that is as fundamental as life itself.
Are we in this struggle as individuals, each alone fighting against nature? Or is this a battle we join as a species?
Mouse recalled the mythical scene described in the Bible, of the Samaritan who interrupted his journey to come to the aid of a stranger lying injured beside the road. Yes, the story is most often told to illustrate the ecumenical, Jews and Gentiles, nature of the new religion, but doesn’t the bottom line of even that interpretation suggest that we are one people, Jews, Gentiles, and barbarians, all together, one people in God. True, the story of the Good Samaritan was not about the health care the injured man received. It was about the nature of the human heart, about what is morally good, and what is morally wrong. It makes the point that life is a moral good, not an economic incentive. The Samaritan was not necessarily a rich man. He was a good man.
The Mouse smiled knowingly (as he had seen the house cat do on occasions that shall remain unnamed). He knew that to argue the point further with a carnivore would not be fruitful, could even prove dangerous. He decided he had framed the issue well. Leave it now to the people in power to decide. He did not feel very confident that they would see it his way, but what else could he do? After all, he’s only a lowly little mouse.
But surely, the house cat argues, it has to be paid for; doesn’t that make it an economic issue?
Mouse answers: economic goods – automobiles, televisions, electric back scratchers, and similar nice-to-haves – flow into the possession of those who can afford them. The desire to possess them can be satisfied better by those who are economically successful. To increase one's power to acquire them might be regarded as an economic incentive to work hard. So we must ask whether health care should be similarly regarded as a reward to successful people that is denied to the less successful.
To help decide that question we ought to substitute for the words “health care” the much more understandable single word “life.” Should economically successful people be granted more life than others?
House cat replies: If you put it that way you certainly have a point, but even if I give you your word for it, wouldn’t you say that in the great scheme of things, it’s all about life. Life would seem to be the ultimate incentive and health care just one of the ways it translates into a practical goal.
Mouse paused, deep in thought. Several answers to house cat’s logic trickled through his mind, but for each of them, an equally logical rejoinder also cropped up. Finally, he realized that moral issues and economic issues are obedient to different strains of logical thought, and that they both begin with the answer to a question that is as fundamental as life itself.
Are we in this struggle as individuals, each alone fighting against nature? Or is this a battle we join as a species?
Mouse recalled the mythical scene described in the Bible, of the Samaritan who interrupted his journey to come to the aid of a stranger lying injured beside the road. Yes, the story is most often told to illustrate the ecumenical, Jews and Gentiles, nature of the new religion, but doesn’t the bottom line of even that interpretation suggest that we are one people, Jews, Gentiles, and barbarians, all together, one people in God. True, the story of the Good Samaritan was not about the health care the injured man received. It was about the nature of the human heart, about what is morally good, and what is morally wrong. It makes the point that life is a moral good, not an economic incentive. The Samaritan was not necessarily a rich man. He was a good man.
The Mouse smiled knowingly (as he had seen the house cat do on occasions that shall remain unnamed). He knew that to argue the point further with a carnivore would not be fruitful, could even prove dangerous. He decided he had framed the issue well. Leave it now to the people in power to decide. He did not feel very confident that they would see it his way, but what else could he do? After all, he’s only a lowly little mouse.
posted by Benedict S. at 7:40 AM
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