The defender
Wednesday, March 4 2009
It’s good to know that Richard Scott and his group, “Conservatives for Patients’ Rights”, are stepping forward as the voice of opposition to health care reform. If we patients had to advocate for ourselves, we’d probably go adrift in a sea of crazy ideas about patients’ rights – things like dignity, equity, empowerment, access to health care – and wind up supporting the Obama plan.
The benefit of the conservative perspective is that it so narrowly defines “patients’ rights” as to minimize any chance of changing anything ever; basically, patients have a right to the status quo – and only that. And as luck would have it, this definition of “patients’ rights” exactly coincides with the interests of those who sustain – and benefit most from – the status quo. Isn’t that perfect?
So I’m glad someone has risen in defense of my right to die a miserable, messy death for lack of health care – because I don’t have the courage to do so myself.
For a somewhat different view, Maggie Mahar, Ezra Klein, and Jon Cohn are all worthwhile.
