Is health care a right or privilege? The economic consequences of that answer. [PODCAST]
“American medicine is facing an identity crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic brought renewed attention to socioeconomic health disparities and turned up the heat on the question of whether health care is a right or a privilege. The financial strain on hospitals resulting from the temporary postponement of scheduled surgeries exposed a vulnerability caused by an inherently flawed payment system.
The answer to the right versus privilege question has much more significant implications than the resolution of a philosophical debate. It determines which economic model that of a public good, a private good, or a common good makes the most sense for the delivery of medical services. For health care to be what we want it to be, broadly accessible, with no socioeconomic disparities, and long-term affordability, it must eventually be recognized as a common good, with all of the economic implications that
In Nepal, a bittersweet wildlife conservation victory has upended many local livelihoods
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Villagers and park staff try to scare a rhinoceros away from crops in Bachhauli village. Photo: Peter Gill
On a sunny afternoon in January 2021, a male rhinoceros lumbered through intensively farmed land in Bachhauli, a village outside Chitwan National Park in Nepal’s Terai plains. Eschewing a patch of potatoes, he turned his attention to a field of buckwheat, munching on the bright pink blossoms before plopping himself into an irrigation canal to wallow in the cool, slow-flowing water.
Worriedly watching the animal from a safe distance, Ramesh Pathak, a tall farmer with green eyes, used his mobile phone to call a game scout from the park. “He’s back again. When can you come?” Pathak asked. The rhino had grazed on Pathak’s crops several days in a row, and he was desperate for help in chasing the animal away.