DiversityInc - September/October 2009

Controversial Q&A from Luke Visconti

Ask the White Guy

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The Value of Healthcare Reform

QMore care will result in more tests and more diagnoses. That will add cost. This was the same flawed assumption of the HMO system. Please look at the Cash for Clunk-
ers Program if you need a recent reminder of government inefficiency. ONE-TRILLION-
DOLLAR DEBT = the country is broke. This program will turn us into one of the so many
insolvent countries of the world and make us irrelevant as a world power.

This has nothing to do with cost—but it has everything to do with values. Over history, taking care of people has proven to be an excellent return on investment. There’s nothing in the Constitution about public schools, but I can’t imagine a better return on investment—except where they’re allowed to fail. There’s a pattern to that failure: I find it very telling that it suddenly becomes not OK to follow up eight years of record-breaking spending when the people who would benefit from resolving the healthcare crisis are disproportionately Black and Latino.

A close look at American history shows us that our greatest problems are linked to conflict with our true values; our founders struggled to integrate slavery into a Constitution that presented rights as unalienable and belonging to people, and that lack of resonance resulted in a civil war that killed more than 3 million Americans.

In my opinion, it is reprehensible and immoral to have healthcare and to protest other Americans’ ability to get healthcare for themselves and their families. Further, echoing

the opinions of jingoistic but non-veteran child-men such as Limbaugh and Beck—people whose credentials and accomplishments ( outside of rabble rousing) wouldn’t fill a thimble— is an abuse of our First Amendment. The First Amendment enables you to have meaningful intellectual discipline. Read up on the subject, think for yourself and present some well-thought-out solutions.

The failure of our current healthcare system is accelerating: Annual double-digit premium growth has resulted in a decline of employer-provided healthcare—soon to be less than 50 percent. Further, a story not being told is about the millions of Americans whose work status has been degraded—full-time workers with healthcare benefits being turned into part-timers with none.

That means that your little island of comfort—where YOU have healthcare but can put your foot on the head of anyone trying to get some—is shrinking. You’re not safe by denying others healthcare, a right in the modern world. You endanger yourself and our nation.