Our Cultural Assumptions stop us from achieving Universal Health Care
American attitudes dissuade citizens from having a universal health care system (UHC). Those beliefs have outweighed considering the health benefits gained from providing affordable health coverage to every citizen.
However, since the Affordable Care Act was passed, there has been greater acceptance of moving our nation’s health standards to what citizens enjoy in other economically developed democracies. Still, two beliefs continue to resist universal health care.
The first belief is that America is the greatest nation in the world, and hence our health care is better than anywhere else. Second, collecting taxes makes for a big government to interfere in people’s private lives.
Those beliefs are not evil but are stopping our healthcare system from being universally accessible to all Americans. Consequently, let’s examine how each assumption is challenged by how our healthcare compares to other nations’ healthcare plans.
Being the Greatest Nation has limits.
The belief that one’s country is a unique great nation is a sentiment other nations have also possessed. Britain, Russia, Germany, China, etc., sometimes believed they were the greatest. And each declined as they limited what they were willing to learn from other…
