On Health Care and the Gap Between Rich and Poor: WWBD?

Amelie takes her studies seriously. She looks at the subject of health care and asks, WWBD (what would Baha'is do)? -gw

From Malcolm Gladwell's fantastic article, "The Moral Hazard Myth, The bad idea behind our failed health-care system."

"Division Between Rich and Poor," uploaded on August 19, 2006 by acermate433s on flickr

"...In the rest of the industrialized world, it is assumed that the more equally and widely the burdens of illness are shared, the better off the population as a whole is likely to be. The reason the United States has forty-five million people without coverage is that its health-care policy is in the hands of people who disagree, and who regard health insurance not as the solution but as the problem."

Another thing we learned during this case is that nations tend to be healthier overall where the gap between rich and poor is less--like Japan is touted as the healthiest nation in the world for this reason. This phenomenon is thought to have a lot to do with stress--in places where people have to financially struggle to survive--particularly as have-nots in a world of haves--and have to work in positions of little power, stress takes a great toll. Moreover, when coupled with limited access to healthy foods and health care because of limited funds: presto! Poor health! I wonder what a Baha'i-inspired platform for health insurance would look like.

Amelia McGee, "The Myth of Moral Hazard and What not," Reluctant Blogger

{Re-posted with permission}