GNH-Health Care

The debate concerning if and how the health care system of the United States of America continues to rage on. Which is the best way to go? This must be solved using the principle of “gross national happiness” because in a society structured like the United States, the government’s primary goal should be to keep the people happy in order for the government to keep control and for the values it endorses to remain viable. According to the Pew Research Center…
· 53% of Americans want the debate to end and think the debaters are crude and disrespectful.
· 59% of Americans believe that the people opposing the legislation for a new system are causing most of the rudeness in the debate.
Therefore, if we want to keep the people happy, a bill that is agreeable enough to be passed is necessary. What constitutes as agreeable enough? According to Pew Research…
· 76% of Republicans oppose health care reform 12% support it, and 12% do not know, while 20% of Democrats oppose the bill, 61% support it, and 19% do not know.
· People who oppose the bill primarily oppose it because they think it will cause a raise in taxes. People who support the bill primarily support it because it will offer universal coverage.
Generally, the public opposes new healthcare primarily because it costs too much money, and having enough money is crucial to happiness. However, which makes people happier: good health or money? Assuming that the coverage covers the basic health needs of the human species, it seems more important to be healthy than to be rich, especially since dead people cannot spend money. How many Americans are uninsured? According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation…
· About 50 million Americans (around 17%) are uninsured. 20% are children.
If the bill is not passed, 17% of the population will be very unhappy and unhealthy, while about 60% of the population, which does not support or is not sure of the reform, will be somewhat happy. Those who supported the bill but were not uninsured make up the rest of the population, or 23%, and are somewhat unhappy. Although the population is generally in favor of the status quo, more unhappiness comes to the side that does not get a bill passed, and, as previously stated, the opposition to the bill makes more than half of the population less happy. Therefore it is important that a bill be passed to provide healthcare to the uninsured, even if taxes have to be raised, for the overall GNH of the nation to increase.
Links:
http://covertheuninsured.org/content/snapshot-us-physicians-key-findings-2008-health-tracking-physician-survey
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1343/health-care-debate-seen-as-rude-disrespectful-high-interest
http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1562

-Socrates