title: Health care reform: can a communitarian perspective be salvaged?
abstract: The United States is culturally oriented more toward individual rights and values than to communitarian values. That proclivity has made it hard to develop a common good, or solidarity-based, perspective on health care. Too many people believe they have no obligation to support the health care of others and resist a strong role for government, higher taxation, or reduced health benefits. I argue that we need to build a communitarian perspective on the concept of solidarity, which has been the concept underlying European health care systems, by focusing not on individual needs, but rather, on those of different age groups--that is, what people need at different stages of life.
authors: The Hastings Center, 21 Malcolm Gordon Road, Garrison, NY 10524, USA. callahan@thehastingscenter.org
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Callahan
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D002961:Civil Rights; D003363:Cost Control; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics*; D005060:Europe; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000941:ethics; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000941:ethics; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000941:ethics*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000941:ethics; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D006278:Medicare; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D012935:Social Justice; D012941:Social Responsibility; D013660:Taxes; D014481:United States