In this essay set, eleven authors each examine a different foundational value, and what its policy implications are if we take it seriously. In an introduction, Hastings Center president Thomas H. Murray writes, "Core American values, rather than existing in ineluctable tension with one another, form a sturdy, mutually reinforcing foundation for health reform. Universal participation may be a concept whose time has finally come." And, in a letter endorsing the essays, former U.S. Senator and current New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine writes, "Health care policy is often described as an arena of intense partisan and ideological division. But there are also important areas of consensus that reflect agreement about some basic, core values. Health care reform will be most successful if it draws on these common values."
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Table of Contents
LIBERTY: Free and Equal
Bruce Jennings
JUSTICE AND FAIRNESS: Mandating Universal Participation
Paul T. Menzel
RESPONSIBILITY: Shane and Joe
Jim Sabin
SOLIDARITY: Unfashionable, But Still American
William M. Sage
MEDICAL PROGRESS: Unintended Consequences
Daniel Callahan
PRIVACY: Rethinking Health Information Technology and Informed Consent
Lawrence O. Gostin
PHYSICIAN INTEGRITY: Why It Is Inviolable
Edmund D. Pellegrino
QUALITY: Where It Came From and Why It Matters
Frank Davidoff
EFFICIENCY: Getting Clear on Our Goals
Marc J. Roberts
HEALTH: The Value at Stake
Erika Blacksher
STEWARDSHIP: What Kind of Society Do We Want?
Len M. Nichols