The Case for Health Reform
There are 10,000 technical questions regarding health system reform, but only one fundamental moral question that ought to be asked before we begin the technical debates: who deserves access to life sustaining care, or who should be allowed to sit at our health care table of plenty? These are ultimately questions about community, the best descriptions of which may be the oldest descriptions we have: the prophetic visions that form the core of our monotheistic traditions.
Program Director Len Nichols recently published an article in the journal Health Affairs that examines the moral case for covering children, as well as all Americans. He subsequently spoke about the moral case with Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus and others at an event on children's health insurance.
To read the article and the speech, click here.
The Health Care "Table of Plenty": Who Gets a Chair?
Interfaith Voices Interviews Len Nichols on Health Care and Ethics
On November 8, 2007, Program Director Len Nichols, joined a diverse panel of experts on the public radio show, Interfaith Voices, to look at health care from an ethical perspective. Stepping outside the traditional parameters of policy-making, the round table considered key ethical questions for health care, including: Is health care a basic human right or something to be bought and sold? Is it an individual responsibility or a social concern? How does the current system violate the common good? And what needs to happen to change it?
"Who should be allowed to sit at our health care table of plenty?" Dr. Nichols, asked. "To me, that's a question of community."
To listen to the discussion, please follow this link and visit Interfaith Voices online.
