PHA-Exch> Is Private Health Care the Answer to the poor? (7)

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Alison Katz katz.alison at gmail.com

 As far as I know, companies have a legal obligation to make a profit for
their shareholders and this creates an instant and inevitable conflict of
interest, which in my view and in any approach based on the right to health,
does indeed present considerable problems.

As for motivation, I have always been intrigued by the pessimistic view of
human beings in capitalist thinking. The human being is NOT motivated
uniquely by monetary reward. On the contrary, as complex, highly social
beings, this particular motivation is one among many others and comes to the
fore in a system which prioritizes monetary over every other reward.

The best example, is "intellectual property". The very term is a nonsense if
you believe that knowledge is part of the "global commons" and should be
shared. But it is an excellent demonstration of the distortion of human
endeavour under capitalism. Patents were designed to reward scientific
merit. They were never designed to deprive populations of the benefits of
discoveries. Many scientist would be more than content with recognition for
their discovery (even celebrity!) but also with the enormous satisfaction of
having contributed to human welfare.

This is not idealism (though personally I have nothing against idealism).
The academic discipline of psychology abounds with studies on human nature.
It is rich, generous, adventurous, joyful - but currently crushed flat and
dull into the one dimensional species of homo neoliberalus Chicagiens.

Finally, private and public mixes lead to two tier systems. There is ample
evidence over 50 years that a public, national health system, offering
universal coverage, with comprehensive services free at the point of care,
properly funded either through income tax or social contributions  is by far
the most cost effective, i.e., better health outcomes for ALL, for
substantially lower costs (individual and the state).
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