In theory and practice:
Trying to equalize health care consumption hurts the poor, since most feasible policies to do this take away cash from the poor, either directly or through the operation of tax incidence. We need to accept the principle that sometimes poor people will die just because they are poor. Some of you don’t like the sound of that, but we already let the wealthy enjoy all sorts of other goods---most importantly status---which lengthen their lives and which the poor enjoy to a much lesser degree. We shouldn’t screw up our health care institutions by being determined to fight inegalitarian principles for one very select set of factors which determine health care outcomes.
Meanwhile, actual poor people:
Laboring in the blackberry fields of central Arkansas, the 18-year-old Mexican immigrant suddenly turned ill. Her nose began to bleed, her skin developed a rash, and she vomited.The doctor told her it was most likely flu or bacterial infection, but farmworker Tania Banda-Rodriguez suspected pesticides. Under federal law, growers must promptly report the chemicals they spray.
It took the worker, and a Tennessee legal services lawyer helping her, six months to learn precisely what chemical doused those blackberry fields. The company ignored her requests for the information. The Arkansas State Plant Board initially refused to provide records to her lawyer, saying it didn't respond to out-of-state requests. An Arkansas inspector, dispatched after the complaint, didn't initially discern what pesticides were used the day the worker became ill, records show.
When answers finally arrived---the fungicide was Switch 62.5WG, a chemical that can irritate the eyes and skin---Banda-Rodriguez had already left Arkansas to follow the season to Virginia and ultimately returned to Mexico. She never learned whether the pesticide sickened her.
We need to accept the principle that sometimes poor people will get sick and die at work just because they are poor. Some of you don’t like the sound of that, but we already let the wealthy enjoy all sorts of other privileges---most importantly, the status of an air-conditioned corner office---which lengthen their lives and which the poor enjoy to a much lesser degree. We shouldn’t screw up our workplaces by being determined to fight inegalitarian principles for one very select set of factors which determine worker-safety outcomes. Besides, that poor woman made some very unfortunate career decisions. She didn't have to become an itinerant farm workers. She could have been a dressage trainer, or a conservative blogger. And there is something seriously wrong with people who believe that denying health care to others who are more likely to get sick than them is a wise and judicious thing to do.
---Vitelius
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