Public Health Care is a Government’s Duty

Argus Leader, Tuesday June 28,2011

 

Not many years ago our farm got hooked up to the Missouri River water system, and it has changed our lives for the better. Our artesian well water, from the bowels of the earth, is no longer rusting our pipes and porcelain, staining our laundry and coffee pots. Very importantly, our health, and the health of our pigs, has improved.

We are no longer jealous of the Miller City water supply that was so much better. But that’s history. So is the civic imperative to provide clean water to homes in towns and effective waste disposal systems for all users. Historically, it was an imperative.

 Long ago settlers knew that it was essential for civic progress to care for all citizens’ health by having clean water coming in and septic waste removed and recycled. This was obvious to the first elected government of Miller, Hand County, and the other counties and towns in this state and every other state in the USA.  As reported in the Hand County Press in February 1882, after the first successful well was dug on the south side of Miller, the town held a street dance and carnival to celebrate. Reports of wells and water quality were weekly news items, as were reports of pumps and parts arriving at the Miller Depot from the east. But this was not new.

In the twelfth century, the City of Norwich, England came back from the devastation of the Plague by redesigning its city water system, wells and waste disposal, along with many European cities hit hard by the easy spread of disease. It could not be an individual solution. One clean neighborhood bordering a filthy water supply would be as doomed to death as the lowest hovels on the downstream part of town. Healthy citizens are part of healthy communities. Personal cleanliness made no substantial impact in the cities, nor did private wells nor distancing one’s kitchen from sewage. Communities of people need to think like communities, not individuals. This is what we have government for, to see to the safety and health of its citizens. It isn’t always pretty dinner conversation discussions, but it is important government work. And we haven’t kept up with the scientific and health discoveries of the last century, when we discuss what a healthy citizenry need to stay productive and independent.

Public health required everyone to pay for clean water and waste disposal wherever a permanent settlement was founded that looked to the future. This care for public health predated anyone seeing a microbe through a microscope, understanding the existence of bacteria and viruses and what they can do, the discovery of the benefits of penicillin and other antibiotics, and the ability to do most of the surgeries routinely performed to save lives, extend the quality of life, and relieve suffering from injury and disease.

We know so much more now than one hundred and fifty years ago, or eight hundred years ago, about healthy food, good nutrition, needs of pregnant women and infants, dietary requirements, and the absolute necessity for physical exercise for the young people in our communities so they grow to be valuable adults in society. 

We’ve known for ages that clean water, unpolluted air, sanitary waste disposal, good nutrition, all lead to a healthy, strong, productive society. We lag far behind our first settlers by not applying what we’ve learned and making health care for all, shared by all, a requirement of state and national planning for the future. We know good nutrition, preventative screenings and timely medical intervention means years of productive life for our citizens.

 And then there are the seniors. They deserve to be able to live a full life, not just during productive years but for all the years they’re given. Threats of medical expenses for assisted living and nursing homes should not be a factor, if staying in one’s private home is an isolating and unsafe situation.

 Affordable public health care for all citizens of our state would strengthen productivity and lengthen life. This is what government is for—to do what individuals cannot do alone. It takes tax dollars for regulation and health costs. It takes taxpayer support of a nationwide health care system.