Is There a Moral Argument for Nationalized Healthcare?

I want to give a shout out to Rich Bordner, a friend and fellow philosophy student at Talbot. Rich has a wonderful and insightful blog with a real edge. He is a young man who loves God, and making an impact on people’s lives is his passion. He is currently a high school teacher, which provides him with insights that make for provocative and often humorous posts at his blog, The Pugnacious Irishman. Rich sees where society is going because he engages with the next generation on a regular basis. So be sure to check out Rich’s blog, who is newly married and back from his honeymoon. He’s also back to writing, but we’ll have to forgive him if his blog production drops off for a while (or will it, Rich?).

Rich just posted a blog titled Breeding Passive Moochers, with a title indicative of his inimitable humor. In this post he provides perspectives on preparing for his marriage and  personal responsibility, which he then weaves into the current healthcare debate. Rich quotes a recent Facebook post from the Acton Institute that I wanted to also share because it rebuts the “it’s the moral thing to do” argument that liberals advance as a reason to support government run-healthcare:

Here are a couple of reasons why nationalized health care is in fact not a morally pure as proponents would like us to believe.

Handing something off to the state so citizens don’t have to take responsibility for themselves and others doesn’t doesn’t really contribute to the moral fabric of a society.

We love to talk about solidarity and the common good but too often solidarity gets turned into “let the state take care of it.” A broader and I would argue morally rich concept of the solidarity and the common good would look to human flourishing and a rich civil society and turn to the state only as the last resort.

It hurts the common good to have the state take over responsibilities that we should bear ourselves or for our fellow citizens. A large nanny state contributes to the “individualism” that Tocqueville warned about: a turning into self that isolates us from everyone but our nearest circle. If the state does everything for us then we don’t need to care about our brothers and sisters and fellow citizens. This means the breakdown of guess what–solidarity. Solidarity is the driving principle behind subsidiarity, voluntary organizations, and charity. Love of neighbor should prompt us to help each other not pass it it off to the state.

From a moral point of view, having the state take over health care breaks down solidarity and harms the common good.

This article echoes what I have discussed in previous blog posts regarding the Catholic social concept of subsidiarity, which argues that societal problems should be solved from the “inside out,” with government, particularly at the federal level, being the problem solver of last resort that avoids encroaching on the solidarity of lower levels. We must first look to family, and then to the church and charitable organizations before looking to government. At times, there is a role for local and state government, but if we had a truly healthy society, there would be little need for government involvement in assisting those truly in need. There should never be a need for federal involvement because that means there has been a breakdown at all other levels, which should be a cause for serious alarm instead of an opportunity for the federal government to get involved in things for which it is limited constitutionally and is not particularly good at in the first place.

Honestly, I believe taxpayers who clamor for more federal government involvement do so because it’s easier for money to simply disappear from their paychecks instead of them becoming personally involved in local charitable activities, taking the time to write checks to their favorite charities, or for those with the wherewithal, creating non-profits that meet community needs. They feel taking the moral high road is somehow consistent with being completely passive, leaving the responsibility on government to solve society’s ills. What they don’t realize is their lack of contribution in the first place is the missing ingredient necessary to building a better and more equitable society . In other words, it is the moral failure to deliver solutions at the local or state level that ultimately leads to the moral argument demanding solutions at the federal level. The problem is the moral imperative has been lost long before the problem winds its way to the federal level.