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Government Intervention in Health Care Markets is Practical, Necessary, and Morally Sound

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Len M. Nichols
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Extract

The intensity of the opposition to health reform in the United States continues to shock and perplex proponents of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The emotion (“Abort Obama”) and the apocalyptic rhetoric (“Save our Country, Protect our Liberty, Repeal Obamacare”), render civil and evidence-based debate over the implications and alternatives to specific provisions in the law difficult if not problematic. The public debate has largely barreled down two non-parallel yet non-intersecting paths: opponents focus on their fear of government expansion in the future if PPACA is implemented now, while proponents focus on the urgency and specifics of our health care market problems and the limited number of tools we have to address them. Frustration on both sides has led opponents to deny the seriousness of our health system’s problems and proponents to ignore the risk of governmental overreach. These non-intersecting lines of argument are not moving us closer to a desired and necessary resolution.

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , Fall 2012 , pp. 547 - 557
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2012

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