Nine citizens are busy determining whether or not all citizens have the right to health care as spelled out by the law known as Obamacare.
There are numerous specific issues on the table: mandating that all must be covered by insurance, that insurance companies cannot deny coverage because of a pre-existing condition, and many others.
Regardless of the details, however, there is one fundamental question that embraces all particulars: Is health care a public good, a necessity that all of us have in common? Clearly, it is and clearly this overarching principle should persuade the Supreme Court to declare the law constitutional.
Over time, more and more phenomena have come to be considered a public good. In the age of segregation the right to all aspects of opportunity was, in many respects, denied. Then, when the court decided, in the case of Brown v. Topeka Kansas Board of Education, that separate facilities were inherently unequal, living in a desegregated nation was considered to be common good. The same is true of the right to vote for women, those who have reached the age of 18, and minorities . The availability of clean air and water is now considered to be a public good and government has assumed the role of controlling the quality of the environment. Similarly, safety in the workplace, on the roads, and in the air are deemed to be public goods and therefore the lawful concern of government. These are just a few examples of how the trend has been to broaden the powers of the federal government to satisfy those needs that are common to all. The result is that all of us live in a healthier, safer, more just society.
If all of this were self-evident then there would no need for a high court to referee the matter. There is a good deal of truth, however, behind the idea that “You can no sooner remove the idea of politics from the process of government than you can remove the idea of sex from the process of creation and evolution.” Regardless of the assumed wisdom of the nine Justices, therefore, the matter of universal health care leaps into the realm of politics.
People and politicians on the left consider the availability of health care to be a public good and those on the right disagree. Given that unanimous decisions of the Supreme Court are very rare, I would assume that the same political tension exists among the Justices.
Neither political position is right or wrong in an absolute sense.
Rather, where one comes down on the issue depends on the values brought to the table. The political question becomes a matter of values: Do we live in a nation where all are better off if no person is, for any reason, deprived of health care?
Thomas Jefferson contributed to the moral and political foundation of our nation when he declared the mandate of the right of all people to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is evident that if some people have access to health care and others do not, then some people have more access to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness than others. Of course, the declaration of a right does not result in the achievement of that right.
The attempt to achieve the common good can result in the tragedy of the commons. This analogy warns us that if we open the town commons for all people to graze their cattle, we do provide for a common good. At the same time, however, we run the likely risk that before long all the grass (a limited resource) on the commons will be gone and then nobody”s cattle will have food. The tragedy of the commons does have relevance to the health care issue. This is because there is a cost involved, i.e. the resources (fiscal and medical) are not unlimited. So what it boils down to is “Whose ox is being gored?” Who is going to pay? Who is going to accept less so that others can have more? And the matter of who gets what and how and when is the essence of the process of politics.
We should, therefore, hope that the Nine wise people of today can decide on the constitutionality of this complex law and the government of today can implement this politically significant law by channeling the moral wisdom of Thomas Jefferson and bring us one step closer to living in a society where all have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Stephen B. Sloane, Ph.D.
Hidden Valley Lake
