Title: Justice as a Frame For Health Care Reform
Summary: Mary Crowley, Director of Public Affairs and Communications of the Hastings Center, writes about how health care reform should be framed as an issue of justice. Crowley argues that health care should not be argued in fiscal and political terms, but as an issue of human rights.
Topic: Should the Obama administration attempt to convert the United States to a single-payer health care system?
Category: Academic Research
What is it? Article published by the Hastings Center
Publication Information: Published in the Hastings Center Report in Jan. 2008
Author: Mary Crowley
Location: http://0-web.ebscohost.com.janus.uoregon.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=5&hid=21&sid=8d79ac5e-c9d0-47e9-915a-80704796fc27%40sessionmgr8
Accessed: Feb. 22, 2009
Support:
Mary Crowley, Director of Public Affairs and Communications at the Hastings Center
David DeGrazia, Ph.D. and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at George Washington University
The Hastings Center
The Hastings Center is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit research institute, which was founded in 1969. The Hastings Center specializes in researching bioethics, and, on a bi-monthly basis, they print a “Hastings Center Report,” which is a collection of essays, columns and case-studies pertaining to bioethics. Mary Crowley’s article, “Justice as a Frame for Health Reform,” was published in the Hastings Center Report in January of 2008. In the article, Crowley references the health care arguments of David DeGrazia. DeGrazia is a proponent of a single-payer health care system in the U.S. but, according to Crowley, he dismisses ethical arguments for health care reform.
Audience and Agenda:
Visitors of the Hastings Center’s website either work in the health care field, or have keen interest on the topic of bioethics. However, those who do follow the work of the Hastings Center and read the Hastings Center Report are able to further their education and awareness on ethical issues circulating the health care field. The Hastings Center is a non-profit research Institute and has over 200 contributors, which include physicians, attorneys, PhD’s and researchers.
Usefulness:
Most of the arguments that come out of Washington about health care reform stem from fiscal and political logic rather than the appeal to justice and human rights. Crowley points out this gloomy truth: it is rare to hear arguments about health care as a human right issue in the United States, even though it is a common argument in other countries. Politicians try to persuade one another using fiscal logic, but Crowley sees the problem of health care as an issue of justice (or injustice in our current situation). Crowley concludes that it is inhumane and un-American to give health care coverage to a majority, but deny coverage to those in the minority. Perhaps it’s time to abandon our logic for reform, and approach the matter in ethical terms.
Works cited:
Academic Search Premier
The Hastings Center
The Hastings Center Report
Wikipedia.org
google.com
The Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal
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