ABSTRACT
The US health care system as a whole would become a public good. In many countries, like Canada, England, and Germany, a market in health insurance and for-profit health care are secondary features of the health care system, which thus functions as a public good. Both democracy and solidarity are necessary conditions for the broad agreement that is the subjective aspect of a common good. Instead of being forced, the agreement must come as the result of a process of struggle, advocacy, and discussion of the sort that makes the core of democratic practice. There are a number of indications that today in the United States there is still a goal in the area of health that is a common good. People are outraged that so little has been done recently to reduce the percentage of the population that is uninsured.
