Traditional and modern ethics

Traditional and Modern Ethics

The Utilitarian Party:

"the Greatest Good for the Greatest Number"

We in the utilitarian party support universal or single-payer health insurance for every American. We believe in the importance of primary care. Today, healthcare is dispensed in an arbitrary fashion, revolving around the question of who has healthcare through his or her employer. This means that some people have more healthcare than they need, and receive every possible screening test imaginable, while others have to go to a clinic or to the Emergency Room for antibiotics to cure strep throat, and either pay their healthcare expenses out-of-pocket or pass the costs onto the taxpayer. The only beneficiaries of the current system are 'the few,' namely those who have good health insurance.

Instead, we utilitarians advocate universal healthcare for all, and care dispensed by need, not by who has the best insurance. A young woman with a history of breast cancer in her family should not have lower priority for cancer screening than someone who does not, simply because the other individual has insurance. The greatest good for the greatest number means a healthier society and will also result in less of a burden for employers, who will no longer have to provide health insurance for employees. Instead, the cost of healthcare will be fairly divided amongst the taxpayers.

One of the concerns about providing universal healthcare is the question of rationing care. However, under the current system healthcare is rationed -- only rather than rationing rationally, according to those who need care the most, and prioritizing preventative care, today healthcare is apportioned to who has the greatest resources of health insurance, regardless of healthcare needs. Security of healthcare enables entrepreneurs to take risks -- having health insurance encourages new graduates to strike out on their own, without worrying about healthcare coverage and encourages industrious individuals too rich to qualify for aid but too poor to pay for care to continue to work. Universal healthcare creates a universally better society.

The Social Justice Party

"Moral behind the veil of ignorance"

From our own personal perspective, it seems like healthcare is an imperative of social justice. We believe we have a right to healthcare because we have a right to our health -- no one would say 'well, my job is not as good as Mr. X's, therefore my healthcare benefits should not be the same as his, even though my healthcare needs are greater.' We all fight for the highest-quality care we can obtain for ourselves and our family. This suggests that healthcare should not be a right connected to one's employment status, or even to one's age -- like food, water, and shelter, it is a universal right needed by all to survive and flourish. The United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control" (cited by Mason 2008).