The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care

Reid uses the fictional examples of CEO Wendy Wilbur and poor laborer Juanita Gonzalez—two, 48-year-old single mothers diagnosed with ovarian cancer—to illustrate the inequality of the US health care system. Wendy saw an oncologist who removed her ovaries. She recovered completely after her surgery and, due to access to medical technology, can expect to live for many more years, cancer-free. Conversely, Juanita never went to the doctor because she had no health insurance. She ignored her pain and continued working until the pain became so severe that she could no longer work. Juanita died before turning 50 and left her teenage daughter orphaned.

In other industrialized nations, both women would have lived. Though Juanita’s story is fictional, it happens to tens of thousands of Americans each year. Most European countries, however, have recognized the universal right to health care in their national constitutions. After World War II, Italy’s recently formed democratic government included the protection of health in its Bill of Rights. At the time, the country didn’t have the resources to institute universal health care, which wasn’t created until 1978.

Now and again, an American goes to court and argues for his or her legal right to medical treatment on the basis of inalienable rights, as written in the Declaration of Independence.