SHOULD WE CREATE A HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM IN THE UNITED-STATES

An orthodoxy has arisen which claims that there is a crisis in the United States health care system such that the system needs to be reformed. This essay challenges that orthodoxy by showing that we do not have a health care system in the United States. We have a non-system of health care, just as we do for virtually all basic social institutions. Challenging the current orthodoxy surfaces two ethical issues that have been ignored: creating a health care system will (a) cause resurgent paternalism and (b) pose a threat to moral pluralism.