Remember a few months ago when some in the audience at a Republican presidential debate shouted approval at the notion of allowing someone without health insurance to die for lack of treatment?
Now we have this remarkably frank assertion by Rick Santorum, who came within nine votes of winning the Iowa Republican caucuses on Tuesday.
No, we have to have something for everybody! We can’t have people having access to better health insurance than other people. No! It all has to be the same! Is that American? Equality of result? Is that what built the greatest country in the history of the world? No. That’s what’s destroying most of the countries in the world.
As I understand it Santorum is saying that a system which provides equal access to health care for all citizens is un-American and destroying other countries. As I understand it he is saying that if, for whatever reason, you have access to excellent health insurance, you and your family are more entitled to potentially life-saving treatment than someone with less health insurance, or none at all– and that’s the American Way.
And this from the “pro-life” candidate, who wants to outlaw abortions even in cases of rape or incest?
So here’s a moral/ethical question: Are some people entitled to better health care than others?
Santorum seems to have made his choice.
