Have You Been to Europe Recently?

Yesterday, on NPR, I listened to another in the interminable interviews on the current Health Care debate. NPR was interviewing two Republican Congresspersons. I believe they were from Pennsylvania.

The final arguement of one of the Congresspersons against the current Health Care initiative supported by the President was that it intended to make us into European style countries. This, evidently would be something to loathe.

As only about 11% of Americans have passports, I am assuming that the Congressperson imagined that this arguement would hold water because people really have never experienced Europe and only have right wing radio commentators to inform them about life in Europe.

That the current health care reform could make us more like Europe would be something to be hoped for. The mainstay European countries - France, Germany, England, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Austira, Switzerland, Netherlands all enjoy a quality of life, a style of living that is equal to ours, plus many have national health care systems that provide health care services to all citizens. In addition, all enjoy levels of freedom and choice equal or greater than our own.

So, what is the arguement? It is the same "fear" arguement that is always employed with positive change is proposed. To create fear, it is necessary to misrepresent not only the truth. So, there is a persistent campaign in the United States by some sectors to paint Europe as "socialist". It is it, then there is an arguement for Socialism. The Quality of Life, the per capita income, the degree of freedom is excellent in Europe: again, equal to or greater than our own.

In fact, what the current Health Care initiative is threatening to do is to ask the American People to live up to its own best reviews as a nation that cares. The primary purpose of the current legislative initiative is to extend health care insurance (and, therefore, health care itself) to the 45 million Americans who do not have it.

European countries have elections that alternatelly put left/center and then right/center and even further to the right governments in place. But, all of these governments agree that to deisturb the social system that provides health care to the majority of citizens would be to take step back from the quality of care and caring that exempifies the Western world.

We have yet to live up to the high level of social consciousness that the European societies exhibit.

he opponents of health care reform are inviting the nation to take the low road, to give in the worst of human tendencies to covet what we have and not care about what others need. We deserve better than this. If we wanted to live in an advanced society, that new how to care for all its citizens, we would have to move to Europe.