Yesterday’s focus lay on the conservative perspective, so unsurprisingly now it is time to consider the liberal’s attitude towards the reform. Something I did not expect while checking several links was that most liberals are not very happy with the current reform either. Really, I expected to find mere praise of Obama’s plans, so at least for me my project seems to be worth the effort. So now let me share my conclusions:
- The government is the only social institution that can balance and protect individual needs and the requirements of the whole public.
- Health care is a right that government must guarantee to every citizen, social injustice needs to be overcome.
- Health care is a human necessity, so it should not be object to the free market.
- They demand a universal social insurance plan, but no socialised medicine meaning that government owns all health care delivery institutions.
- They want a single-payer system instead of the public option, the latter being additional to private insurance companies. Obama made too many compromises. (Find out more about the difference here)
- Health care should be financed via progressive (if you earn more money, you have to pay more for health care) or proportional payments (the relation between income and payment is constantly the same for all). The former system is based on regressive payment (those who earn less have to pay more for health care).
I do like the well-researched and distanced article by Thomas Bodenheimer on the liberal perspective and if you have the time, you should read it yourself. I based my post mainly on it. And in addition, The New York Times focussed on the way liberals reacted to the government's decisions in more detail.
So far, two groups, two points of view…. And at least a third one to follow soon.
