Bee Lavender has a poignant piece in guardian.co.uk on why she prefers the British health care system (NHS) to the American version.  Here’s the key passage in her essay.

In the US, the greatest restriction on personal freedom that I have ever encountered in my own life, or witnessed in the lives of friends, all comes down to health insurance. Creative, innovative, talented people are unable to change jobs because they need the insurance. Small companies collapse because they cannot afford employee insurance. People die because they do not have insurance.

This to me seems the critical issue we need to work through as we move forward in the U.S. health care debate. Has the U.S. system reached a ceiling in its desire to create the underlying conditions for a free society? We’ve always had a struggle with spending on public goods in this country, but have lurched towards funding basic services to create a just society (education, Medicare, Social Security, etc.). There are lots of ways to cover everyone and the NHS has its critics, but I’m not sure if we as a nation think that access to health services is a precondition for living in a free society. I fear we become too fragmented or skeptical of government’s ability to provide public goods? I’m not sure if we in the social sciences can do more to help drive the debate since the question of universal coverage is about value orientations.