Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:45:53.683Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Medical Responsibility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Ronald Hamowy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

These comments seek to take issue with the contention that society has a responsibility to provide its members with any needed health care. In order to deal with this claim, we must first make clear exactly what it meant by the proposition. I take it that those who embrace this view mean considerably more than that each of us has a moral obligation to contribute to those in need of medical attention who are unable, for one reason or another, to afford the necessary care. This is a moral proposition and is traditionally dealt with under the heading of charity. But the contention, as here used, means considerably more since its main implications are not moral but primarily political.

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , Fall 2012 , pp. 532 - 536
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Roosevelt, Franklin D., in his State of the Union Address of January 11, 1944, Declared that all Americans “have the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.” During the presidential debate held in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 7, 2008, Obama maintained that “I think [health care] should be a right for every American.”.Google Scholar
However, this figure does not include Medicare's share, which is substantially greater than 3.1%, of general governmental administrative expenses. See Matthews, M., Medicare's Hidden Administrative Costs: A Comparison of Medicare and the Private Sector (Alexdandria, VA: The Council for Affordable Insurance, 2006). Zycher, B., Private Health Insurance: Would a Single Payer System Save Enough to Cover the Costs of the Uninsured?, Medical Progress Report No. 5 (New York: Center for Medical Progress of the Manhattan Institute, 2007).
Woodhandler, S. Campbell, T. Himmelstein, D., “Costs of Health Care Administration in the United States and Canada,” New England Journal of Medicine 349 (August 21, 2003): 768–775.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
For a comprehensive survey of the Canadian health care system and its limitations, see Skinner, B. J., Canadian Health Policy Failures: What's Wrong? Who Gets Hurt? Why Nothing Changes (Vancouver: Fraser Institute, 2009).Google Scholar
See United States Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2010): 100 (Table 132).Google Scholar
McKinsey & Company estimated that in 2006 health administration and insurance costs accounted for $145 billion while total health care spending came to $2,053 billion. This amounts to 7.06%. McKinsey & Company, Accounting for the Cost of US Health Care: A New Look at Why Americans Spend More: Executive Summary, December 2008, at 14.Google Scholar
American Medical Association, “Administrative Costs of Health Care Coverage,” available at <http://healthcarereform.procon.org/sourcefiles/administrative_costs_of_health_care_coverage_ama.pdf> (last visited August 17, 2012).+(last+visited+August+17,+2012).>Google Scholar
Testimony of Lewis Morris, Chief Counsel, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on Reducing Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in Medicare, before the Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Health, Subcommittee on Oversight, House of Representatives, April 19, 2011, available at <http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2010/06/t20100615c.html> (last visited August 17, 2012).+(last+visited+August+17,+2012).>Google Scholar
President Barack Obama in a statement to the Joint Session of Congress on September 9, 2009, quoted by Vincent Frakes, L., Policy Director for the Center for Health Transformation, testifying before the Committee on House Oversight and Government Reform, February 11, 2011, available at <http://web.lexis-nexis.com.proxyau.wrlc.org/congcomp/document?_m=4bb4ce45bc4d62f287a34602d7799ed9&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVzV-zSkSA&_md5=07a5f639eb4b7344fd581f5bb2bc1add> (last visited June 22, 2011).+(last+visited+June+22,+2011).>Google Scholar
See Ehrenreich, J., “Toward a Healing Society,” in Paul, E. F. Russo, P. A. Jr., Public Policy: Issues, Analysis, and Ideology (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, Inc., 1982): At 186–197.Google Scholar
The Wall Street Journal on August 23, 2009, reported that the executive vice president of the American Association of Retired Persons, Mr. John Rother, noted that the annual cost for an individual plan for a 25-year old man in New Jersey in 2006 Was $5.880, while a similar plan in Kentucky would have cost $1,000. See “The Compeition Cure,” Wall Street Journal, available at <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203550604574360923109310680.html> (last visited August 17, 2012).+(last+visited+August+17,+2012).>Google Scholar
Maddison, A., The World Economy: Historical Statistics (Development Center Studies: Paris: Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, 2003), and Historical Statistics for the World Economy, 1:2003 A.D. show the following GDP for the three nations: (1) Japan: 1946: 1,444; 2003: 21,218; (2) South Korea: 1946: 686; 2003: 15,732; and (3) China: 1950: 448; 1972: 802; 1978: 978; 2003: 4,803. See <www.ggdc.net/…/Historical_Statistics/horizontal-file_03–2007.xls>(last visited June 24, 2011).(last+visited+June+24,+2011).>Google Scholar
The Tax Foundation's Special Report (no. 190) on Tax Freedom Day, dated March 2011, which calculates that in 2011 Americans will have paid all their taxes by April 12.Google Scholar
Giving USA Foundation, Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University, June 9, 2010. The National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute reports that public charities in 2009 had revenues of 1.373 trillion dollars, and of this number, 54%, or $741 billion, were devoted to health.Google Scholar