PHIL 2408 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Aspirin, Whitehall Study, Universal Health Care
28 Jan 2015
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Equal opportunity = universal health care: fair opportunity shares are a requirement of justice, good health is required for fair opportunity, universal health care is essential to securing good health, universal health care is a requirement of justice. Since introduction of nhs: absolute mortality rates have declined but greater relative disparities have arisen. Since opportunity is relative, increasing opportunity equality must require reducing relative disparities. Justice (opportunity) seems to require us to spend our money elsewhere not to have a public health system. We can"t blame a patients fever on his lack of aspirin. Blaming our health status on lack of access to health care confuses the cure with the cause! Inequality of access is just another manifestation of the inequalities that cause ill health in the first place. The wealth of the nation has increased but is unequally distributed. Since the 70s, income of the wealthiest fifth of americans rose by 43%, wile the bottom fifth fell by 9%.
