The Times has two articles this morning about the growing numbers of uninsured in America and the effect those numbers are having on the political landscape. After describing the combined impact of rising healthcare costs and unemployment, Robin Toner writes:
In such times, the plight of the uninsured becomes more of a middle-class issue, more of a symbol of real close-to-home insecurity and thus more politically potent, advocates and experts say. Until now, “it’s mainly been an issue of altruism for a discrete and disadvantaged population,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a liberal consumer group. “Now that the losses in health coverage are impacting more middle-class and working families,” Mr. Pollack said, “this issue becomes one of self-interest for a very substantial part of the population.”
I read pieces like this with only a novice’s understanding of the problem. The “business” of health care is beyond me. Which is why I don’t typically write about our need for something like socialized medicine. But that quote has stuck with me. In our money-saturated political discourse, caring about the health of our least advantaged citizens has become a question of “altruism.” As if it were a purely moral issue, divorced from politics!
It’s amazing what kind of noise is made when middle-class sensibilities and suburban comfort are threatened. (Any parallels here with the American Church are purely intentional.)