Society’s greed has wrought flawed health care system

Patricia Hershwitzky, Las Vegas

Friday, May 14, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

My great-great-uncle Charles Egan, a Midwest country doctor, reportedly died penniless in the early 1900s because he placed the dignity of a person above personal gain. One can only imagine that he would accept whatever his poor patients could provide in payment for his services. (He was also a college roommate and supporter of the progressive Robert La Follette, who might well have supported universal health care.)

The principle behind Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sue Lowden’s “bartering” statement is an ageless one that has resonated since the dawn of mankind. However, if Ms. Lowden’s idealistic vision of caregiving seems Pollyannish and foolishly unattainable, it is only because we are a bureaucratic, litigious, regulatory society excessively burdening those individuals called to be healers, not profiteers.

Moreover, this arose from politicians, of both major party affiliations, in cahoots with others, including the mushrooming middleman known as the insurance industry. Very few of them live in a working-class world although they strive to portray themselves as the worker’s friend.

That someone would have to rely on an employer or a union to obtain medical insurance, not care, should illuminate this truth. The fact is, none of us should have to beg for medical care, and our worth as individual beings, made in the image of our Creator, vastly outweighs any monetary system.

Greed and power, as always, are the genuine culprits — and the sooner local communities discard the middleman and create their own medical care doctors and facilities, the better everyone may be.