The ruling of the United States Supreme Court that the Affordable Care Act, derisively referred to as Obama Care, does not offend the constitution may be a major victory for the people of the United States.
For better or for worse, they now have a law which makes for the better provision of health care in circumstances where they may access such health care without running the risk of having to pull their pockets to pay horrendously high medical bills.
It is a salutary reality that this kind of legislation has been so long in coming to what is largely regarded as the wealthiest country on this earth, but there are lessons in this victory even for us here in Barbados.
In this week’s Budget Debate, one of the issues was Government’s recurring expenditure and the fiscal deficit, and among those public services demanding copious amounts of public cash was the Queen Elizabeth Hospital specifically, and the health services, generally.
Clearly, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Someone has to pick up the tab, and whether in the richest country on earth or in our small neck of the woods, solutions have to be found in these difficult times which enable the provision of some of the social services without breaking the treasury or racking up higher and higher deficits.
Health care is therefore a major concern of all nations, but must be more so a concern to us when more and more of our people are living to ripe old age, and when the triangle of youth versus age has become inverted with smaller and smaller numbers of people supporting a growing number of pensioners and older people.
We therefore welcome the local debate on the provision of health care service because it is an important social and financial issue for this country.
The bill for non-communicable diseases continues to grow and while we cannot help but grow older, there is a personal and major national obligation on all of us to try to live the healthiest lifestyles we can.
By doing this, we would be looking after our personal well-being, and equally, we would be helping to keep our national financial and social landscape in order.