A few questions about "universal health care" in the United States.
1. What does "universal" mean?
2. Does "universal" define the scope of services, the scope of conditions for which care is to be available, the scope of the population being served, the scope of payment, or the entire spectrum from prevention through diagnosis, testing and treatment? Will non-legal residents receive health coverage? Will tourist visitors receive health coverage? Will coverage be made available to individuals who have "green" cards? Will coverage be available to those who do not cooperate in their own care and demand one provider after another, one test after another, and one treatment after another?
3. What does "health care" mean? Does it include "prevention"? Does it include care which diagnoses and treats conditions and diseases which shorten life expectancy? Does it include care for conditions which make life miserable, as through mental illness, addiction, pain, cosmetic defects, conditions associated with lifestyle choices, malnutrition due to poverty or neglect, obesity, environmentally transmitted (or caused) disease? Does it include contraception, abortion, liver transplants for alcoholics, lung transplants for smokers, pancreas and kidney transplants for uncontrolled diabetics, and heart transplants for those who refused to take cholesterol-lowering drugs? Will prayer be covered as a therapeutic modality? Will unproven remedies be covered? Will prescription medications be fully covered? Will high technology artificial limbs and prosthetics be covered? Will special educational services be covered? Will taxicab rides, provided to beneficiaries to get them to a medical center, be covered?
4. What are the limits to "universal" and to "health care"? What decision making process will be used to allocate resources?
5. Upon what ethical principles will health care be provided, denied and decisions made?
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