Health care in America is being threatened not only by spiraling costs, but by degeneration of ethical and civil discourse, a vice president of a Catholic health care network in St. Louis said last week.

The hour-long lecture by Dan O’Brien on April 6 was the 14th installment of the Most Reverend Bishop McCarthy Series at St. Edward’s University. O’Brien, the vice president of Ethics at Ascension Health, a Catholic health care network, focused his speech primarily on health care, but also briefly touched on ethical policies in America on such topics as abortion, religion and the roles of government and individuals.

Among those in attendance were Sr. Donna Jurick, executive vice president and provost; Fr. Lou Brusatti, dean of the School of Humanities; Fr. Rick Wilkinson, director of Campus Ministry, and administrators of the Seton Family of Hospitals. John E. McCarthy himself, bishop of Austin from 1986-2001, also attended.

O’Brien, who was introduced by university President George Martin, began his lecture by reading Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken.” O’Brien then offered observations and his thoughts on the state of the politics of health care.

“I was discouraged by the injustices in our health care system and by our national lack of will and lack of action to ensure coverage and access to health care for all,” O’Brien said. “It doesn’t take a long look down the road to where it thins in the undergrowth to see that our health care system isn’t taking us where we need to go.”

O’Brien voiced support for the health care overhaul bill passed last year by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama and derided those who opposed the bill for the values underlying their arguments, as well as for spreading what he said was misinformation about the law.

“We like to talk about the value of individualism and about the evils of big government, and it seems to ring true in our national psyche, identity and history,” O’Brien said. “But in fact, we are already deeply entrenched in government-reimbursed health care and have been for many decades.”

The “angry voices” of the health care debate, he said, were unfortunately spread through the same technologies that have sparked revolutionary movements in nations across the Middle East.

But the biggest concern about the immediate communication that O’Brien expressed was about a lack of local community. People are drawn to idolizing ideology, he said.

“This new form of globalization and connectedness actually encourages and reinforces individualism more than ever,” O’Brien said. “Now we can say we are citizens of the world while neglecting the community in front of us.”

Ultimately, O’Brien concluded, the country needs to continue on the path of health reform that includes both the public and the private sectors and incentives for preventative medicine rather than just funding emergency care when it is too late. The Catholic health care model can serve as an inspiration to reform, he said. And the technology of today, while threatening, could be helpful to public discussions.

“Contrary to what we might think, globalization engendered by the immediacy of the Internet and other communications media has not led, as some used to fear, to a single worldview or to a single cultural dominance, but to a proliferation of religious ideas and philosophical interpretations,” O’Brien said.