The debate on a national health insurance program seems to have finally leaped the last absurd argument against it—that health care is a privilege, not a right.
That preposterous canon has been in place while millions of Americans have been denied care and suffered the consequences.
Now the two largest U.S. healthcare trade groups, America's Health Insurance Plans and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, have agreed their members will provide guaranteed health care despite pre-existing health conditions, provided individuals are required to buy insurance.
How personal coverage will be enforced and financed as well as at what rates is the next issue to be resolved by incoming President Barack Obama, who has made universal coverage, starting with children, part of his program of change.
Estimates vary. But by one count more than 40 million Americans have no health insurance. That number probably is soaring, with more job layoffs, business bankruptcies and scaled-back work benefits during the deepening recession.
Moreover, today's health care is a Catch-22 proposition. It is exponentially more expensive because of wonder drugs, advanced diagnostic and treatment procedures, life-saving trauma services and specialty physicians.
More people are living longer because of improved care, thereby adding older patients with geriatric illnesses to the health system's burdens.
However, this is certain: A healthier America means more productive Americans who no longer need to anguish about whether they must sacrifice their well-being for lack of health insurance.
