My recent experience of the UK National Health Service (long post)

[Sailor Steve]

This is just about the most civilized discussion of this subject I've ever seen. Good for you guys!

Both sides have good arguments, and both sides are open to criticism. Of course if that weren't true, there wouldn't be two sides. What at first seems to be about "free" versus "pay" health care is of course really a question of who pays, since as we all know, nothing is free.

The deeper difference I see, and the one that inevitably starts the arguments, is that it's also a question of freedom versus control. Under a free system, which of course is the one where you have to pay, only those who can afford to pay get the service they need. But the other system, where the care is free, can only operate if the authorities are empowered to take whatever monies they need to make the system operate.

I can say that morally it is best that no-one suffer, but that also means that I have to take whatever I can from whomever I want to make that happen, which is of course in itself immoral. Americans don't like the idea of socialism, but one would think that Christians would be the first ones to support a system that protects everyone. That is not meant to demean anyone who is Christian, but rather to point out the seeming paradox of values in any large society; and American society on the whole claims the mantle of Christianity.

I'm against socialized medicine, but I also see that there is a need for people to not be discarded. A friend of mine is not against abortion in general, but he believes that since he doesn't believe in the practice himself his tax money should not go to support it. My argument in that discussion was to point out that that would mean admitting that it was a right but denying that right to someone who didn't have the money for it. He agreed, and we agreed that we didn't really have a definitive answer to the question.

And that's my point here. Both sides are right, and both sides are wrong, and you guys are at least discussing it honestly rather than beating your national chests. Maybe someday we'll actually figure out something that works for everyone.

But I doubt it.