Committing health care to compassion

In June, the American Diabetes Association hosted its annual meeting, during which exciting scientific advances were discussed, revolutionary treatments highlighted, and novel medical devices unveiled. The opportunities to improve the health of the 30 million individuals currently living with diabetes in the U.S. have never been more promising.

Unfortunately, the excitement for these advances is tempered by the shadow cast by the American Health Care Act, its Senate equivalent and the malevolent spirit that brought them to life.

While the power of biomedical research to transform lives offers tremendous hope for those suffering from debilitating diseases, it is becoming clearer that the revolutionary advances in medical care may not be broadly shared but rather restricted to those of significant financial means.

If current healthcare legislation becomes law, health will become yet another metric by which American society will be segregated into the haves and have-nots, with the haves benefiting from astounding medical advances, and the have-nots forcibly relegated to illness by policies of contrived social Darwinism.

It need not be this way. While health care is certainly expensive, arguing that we must shrink from this challenge and deny fellow citizens care because we cannot afford equality in the face of disease is patently false. We have the means to do this. We simply need to decide that providing every American with coverage is an important part of ensuring a fair and just society in which every citizen has the health necessary to achieve their potential regardless of their station in life. We need legislation that resurrects compassion.

Beyond justice this serves our own interests since our individual well-being is interconnected with the well-being of our fellow Americans. The riptides of competition that permeate American society distort our thinking and make us lose sight of the fact that we are not in some Darwinian fight for survival against our neighbors. Rather, we exist in a complex human ecosystem in which each of us derives benefit from the strength of others. An AHCA world threatens to disrupt that integrated social web. If one of us lacks the means of caring for their health, that has important consequences not just for them, but also for their families, their communities, and the rest of us whose lives intersect with them in ways large and small. We may be enamored with the myth of American individualism, but the truth is that we are connected and dependent on one another in myriad ways that rely upon each of us being able to live a healthy life.

Unfortunately, policy proposals like the AHCA fail to recognize our interconnectedness. Not only are these plans rooted in a false notion of equal opportunity, but they are suffused with an animus toward the disempowered and vulnerable. We have to move beyond this notion that circumstances and opportunity don't matter. That impoverishment is a state of mind. That racism and sexism are not barriers to advancement. We cannot ignore these potent forces and pretend that the American dream is equally available to everyone. Rather, we must actively work to break down barriers in order to guarantee that everyone has the opportunities necessary to succeed. This includes aggressively ensuring universal access to health care.

Importantly, this requires a strong commitment from the federal government to guarantee affordable access to care for all citizens. We cannot leave this issue to the vagaries of state politics. Americans should not be disadvantaged by the random accident of their birth.

Furthermore, given the fundamental changes occurring in the American workplace, health care should no longer be tied to employers. We need a national healthcare system that provides coverage to everyone always.

If the Affordable Care Act failed, it was because it didn't go far enough. But the AHCA will fail because it denies human dignity and abdicates the responsibility of the government to care for all its citizens, with consequences that will be devastating for all of us.

Robert M. Sargis, M.D., Ph.D., of Naperville, is an assistant professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, Department of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago.