CHANGING VIEWS OF HEALTH CARE DELIVERY FO The Individual versus the Community
E
very person is entitled to adequate food, shelter, education, and personal security is a common
present day assertion The recent American debate demanded that we add medical care to this list. It was framed in terms of government responsibility versus that of the individual, a question that could not have been posed in a simpler, poorer society, nor before our era of continual medical progress. The legislation of universal health care has settled this question with considerable acrimony. It has, however, not ended the debate over individual responsibility versus communal obligation that remains very much with us.
astinummos daiwel togel jaoM
Decades of debate preceded even incremental steps from total individualism to social obligation. We began with charitable efforts and humanitarian concerns prompted by the danger of disease to the broader community. As this did not solve the problem, we provided limited medical care for the poor through Medicaid. The aged represented another concern, their care was served through Medicare. Universal health care represents a further step again taken only over vigorous opposition.
The division of opinions over the responsibility of the individual and the community remains. This paper is written on the premise that a comparable efforts to solve a major community wide problem may not only be found in contemporary European health care models, but also in the Jewish past. The Jewish tradition has dealt with a similar issue through the centuries not in the area of health care, but with poverty. The slow evolution from appeals to individual conscience to communal legislation provides a good model from the past.