The Start of a Healthcare Manifesto

I have always had health care. I'm Canadian. I'm proud of this fact. I also realize that even the previous generation was not so fortunate. Our system is not perfect - but most of the time it works.

I especially like your point in #3 - that wellness and preventative medicine should be more highly valued. That holds true here too IMO.

I see the US grappling with this important issue. As an outsider, I see lines being drawn 'in the sand' as it were, about whether or not universal health care is Christian. It makes me sad. When this issue comes to my mind, I'll pray for you there in the US.

the problem is a fundamental economic issue. health became a commodity and in so doing no longer served a true function as a public good. it seems to me that all four of your valid points are rooted in this common systemic issue. which leads to the hard part. how do we fix health care when it is tied to an economic system that is as upside down? our entire system is rooted in the relationship of debt as a commodity to the risk attached to a consumer who holds that debt. our system is based almost solely on risk management and extracting value from consumers to float the credit industry and is no longer rooted in actual wealth creation in local economies. it's just as hard for a local hardware store to compete with lowes as it is for say a local doc to set up shop with a few others to compete with the managed care/risk systems with big insurance companies standing at the gate.