THE PUBLIC MIND: HEALTH CARE REFORM COMPLEX

To the Editor:It is gratifying to see that Anericans are convinced (for the most part) that the health care system needs constructive reform and that the Administration is seriously addressing the issue. However, the issue is so complex that a preponderance of discussion and work lie ahead until workable systems are developed.Among the various considerations is the mistaken, longstanding assumption that health care should be attached to employment. Health care is fundamentally a claim by members of a community on each other. It is a claim of human beings, not of "workers". It is a citizenship claim, not an employment benefit. In the origins of our present system, health care was presented as a benefit of employment. Companies used it as part of a compensation package that was secured by unions or simply instituted through corporate self-enlightment.However, over the decades, health care has become a right springing from our common life together, whether employed or unemployed, rich or poor. It arises from our shared humanity; from the bonds between generations and among families, friends and communities. Attaching this rightful claim to employment misses the point.Servicing our present health care system has become a heavy burden for our nation's employers. Why burden them with the monitoring of health care in addition to their primary purpose of conducting a business?If health care is the right of people as citizens and members of inter-dependent communities, why not let the associations and government(s) responsible to those people deal with health care?

Gilbert Degenhardt

Jackson