Analysis: Aligning U.S. Health Care with U.S. Foreign Policy
Council on Foreign Relations | 28 June 2012
Laurie Garrett

Extract
Millions of lives are prolonged or saved throughout the world, thanks to United States-supported health programs. But Americans aren’t so lucky. For many, the best way to get affordable treatment at U.S. taxpayers’ expense might be to move to a poor country that is committed to building universal coverage, backed by U.S. development aid.

The Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act (PDF) opens the possibility that the United States may now begin to domestically implement policies that foreign aid agencies and the Department of Defense have long supported, both politically and economically, as elements of U.S. foreign policy. It may now be possible to harmonize longstanding U.S. foreign and domestic policies regarding health-care access for poor and middle class peoples…