Health Care And Humanitarian Efforts: A Double Standard?

There is nothing like a humanitarian effort to put pride in ones’ heart. Helping your fellow man – or woman – is something that I think provides value in our lives.

We see the signs of these efforts in health care on a regular basis now. Just a few days ago, I was witness to some placards on 6th Street, asking people to make donations for health care for a baby in China. Another example is “Floating Doctors” - a medical group that provides free health care for people in remote regions of Haiti, Honduras, and Panama. These are all admirable, socially-conscious efforts.

My question is this: how many of these same people are staunchly opposed to universal health care in their own backyard?

I have always found an intriguing disconnect in this country between health care and humanitarian efforts. On one hand, people think that giving of themselves with altruistic intent for others is great and admirable. Fair enough. But when it comes to a simple premise – universal health care – people become quite polarized. They suddenly want to have health care their way, and there is no way that they are going to contribute to a universal health care plan. Why should they pay for someone else’s health care?

It just doesn’t make sense to me. In my eyes, it is a bit of a double standard of the soul, if you will.

If you can go to great lengths to assist in the health care of others less fortunate around the world, then why can’t you do exactly the same thing within your own borders?

A total of 16% of the population of the United States are without health care coverage. This percentage has not changed over the past 4 years. In 2008, this amounted to a total of 44 million people; in 2011, the total rose to 49 million people. That is a lot of people falling through the cracks.

Compare that to the countries that “Floating Doctors” serve. The population of Haiti is 9.8 million; Honduras,  8.3 million, and Panama, 3.5 million. The number of people without health care coverage in the United States is more than double the population of all three countries combined – and they are right here, within our own borders.

For some inexplicable reason, people are very comfortable with this disconnect. No worries, they say, let’s fix it elsewhere. We can save people in other countries. Why do anything about it here? We already have the best health care system in the world as it is [insert sarcasm here].

What happened to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Is “health” not “life”?

When are we going to make the choice to make that “extra humanitarian effort” for our brethren within the borders of this country – as a first option, and not as an afterthought?

Photo credits: erlin1