Republicans and Health Care

Several people have responded to the query Michael P. posted from one of his students yesterday.  What puzzled me about the student's query was that one of the issues on which she found herself leaning republican was health care.  Clinton and Obama disagree about how to achieve universal access to health care, but at least they are both committed to the proposition that everyone should have access to affordable health care.  I see no such commitment coming from the republicans.

As as I have argued in several pieces (most recently, "Poor" Coverage: The Preferential Option for the Poor and Access to Health Care, 5 Journal of Catholic Social Thought 125 (2008), posted on the sidebar),  the common good requires that all individuals have access to affordable health care.  In the words of Pope John XXIII, health care is among the basic righs that flow from the dignity of the human person.  Access to affordable health care for all persons simply cannot be attained within the current structure of primarily employer-provided health care. 

There is plenty of room for disagreement about how to provide affordable care (and I discuss the pros and cons of some of the major alternatives in the aforementioned article) and there can be disagreement about the precise role the federal government should play in ensuring the everyone has access to affordable care.   But from a Catholic perspective, there can be no disagreement about the goal.