Monday, August 17, 2009

Means vs Individuals: Health Care Debate

This is how I like to think about the crux of this current debate on health care. It may appear strange to associate this kind of parallel to the health debate but it is true. We are having this town hall meetings and discussions with two parties coming from a totally different vantage points. The law makers/decision people are attempting to base their approach, direction on the basis of statistics, data points whereas each of the town hall community set up is challenging them with their individual experiences and stories. Yes critics will challenge the data points being used by the government to promote their legislation since statistics has always been subject to that scrutiny. Similarly the individual stories and folklore ( these are apparently individual stories from other countries (Britain, Canada) which are used to amplify the problems with the health care reform) are also sometimes biased since there is a lot of human emotions involved. But to cut to the chase given the two different vantage points for the two parties the debate becomes loud, unruly and unproductive. Thanks to the media you are streamed that 24*7 to make matters worse.
I am a proponent of the health care reform but cannot provide my preference to the current government proposal since I am not done enough homework (people tend to assume the legislation based on here-say and it is a Chinese whisper at this point of time). However I am pretty sure the current status quo needs to be changed and our healthcare system needs to be fixed. As someone said the devil is in the detail which is true but individual ownership of health is a must to solve the long term health care industry. In the interim, the healthcare system needs to avoid bankrupting the rest of the economy and anything to fix it is better than nothing. Yes the medians and the means will not line up with every individual case but that is what societies have always done. Work for the masses and masses are sure not 100%.