TEDxSwarthmore - Paul Starr - The American Struggle over Health Care Reform

Starr explores how the United States became so stubbornly different in health care and why we've been fighting over it for a century.
Paul Starr (P, '13) is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University and co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect. He received the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction and the Bancroft Prize in American History for The Social Transformation of American Medicine (1982). His most recent book is Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Care Reform (2011). He is the father of Abigail Starr '13.
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[@nonchalantd]

Professor Starr is an excellent presenter and thinker.

[@Hume2012]

Excellent talk. I find it appalling, as an American, that so many Americans see health care entirely as an economic matter and who pays for what. (Even though there is a powerful set of arguments for reform on economic grounds alone.) Everyone else in the Western and most of the Asian world recognizes the moral importance of health care. It is a moral disgrace that the richest country in the world has not had universal health care all these years and that so many people care so little for the well being of their fellow citizens that they fight this tooth and nail.

[@olgaluciarestrepo6329]

so sad of aknowlidging that this unfold ideological and economic debate on health care and social justice has colonized latin america and my country colombia making our socialized health systems crash and with that devastating effect million of poor citizens dying of negligence and violence...

[@pomod]

The deficit of a collective empathy, especially on the political right is utterly and jaw droppingly amazing for any of us who live in other industrialized nations, where health care is taken granted. That Americans are actually up in arms that someone wants to provide them access to health care seems crazy. This backwards notion that this some how impinges on their freedom rather than extend it betrays of a self-centred deficit of empathy that is at the heart of America's cultural malaise.

[@alaskanrobby]

Peoples first reaction to universal healthcare is "Why should I be paying an extra 1,000 dollars for healthcare?" Well, note that on average, U.S. citizens spend PLENTY more than 1,000 dollars on their healthcare. People would actually be SAVING money, not loosing it. Universal healthcare would technically be HELPING the economy.

[@joelstrom7671]

Many good points and questions raised. But when will personal responsibility come into the conversation? Half of our health care costs are due directly or indirectly to poor personal behavior CHOICES -- eating too much, drinking too much, smoking too much and exercising too little. You can't get better results or lower costs unless ALL Americans practice better personal behavior and are held accountable for those poor CHOICES.

[@enriqueguillen1597]

people really dont understand that increasing insurance rate to those who most need it is unfair. Doesn't matter how healthy you try to be anybody can get sick, so why not just make it one single fair rate for everyone, and make it affordabe for everyone.

[@Hyperfried]

1:11 - Stolen directly from Stephen Colbert.