Human Rights and What Ted Kennedy Can Teach Us About Social Enterprise

by Nathaniel Whittemore

categories: Government and Social Entrepreneurship, Human Rights

Published August 26, 2009 @ 02:47PM PT

Today's news is full of wonderful tributes to a man whose distinguished career impacted the lives of millions. For social entrepreneurs, the issue at the heart of his legacy - health care - provides a fascinating case study in the challenges and opportunities of social enterprise.

Social enterprise is both a way of seeing and an approach to organizing. It's a lens of seeing the world that suggests that financial, social, and environmental value can and should be created in balance and concert; that businesses have immense opportunity (and responsibility) to steward precious resources and that nonprofits can harness the power of markets to better allocate the goods and services that all must have access to.

Health care is an issue that can be interestingly viewed through this lens. There is a philosophical question at core of the debate: do people have a right to care? And to what level of care do they have a right?

At the same time, there is a question of means and mechanism. Health is one of the largest industries in the US. What is the balance between providing care - a demonstrable social good - and reaping the financial rewards? Perhaps most difficultly, what return (social or financial) wins when the incentives align differently?

This matters to social enterprise because for as many organizations as there are trying to align financial and social incentives, there will always be economic incentives that reward social ill and exploitation, instead of social good. It would be naïve to presume that this isn't the case, and so the question becomes, what happens then?

Jeff Trexler makes this point brilliantly yesterday in a piece about health care and social innovation:

However, the dirty secret of healthcare is that it's a field long defined by the very practices that we promote as hallmarks of social enterprise. Charitable business; hybrid for-profit/nonprofit ventures; commercial entities blending the pursuit of profit with social responsibility; massive investment in innovation; metrics, metrics and more metrics--it's entirely possible that by focusing on the day-to-day problems that ordinary people experience with the current system, we are overlooking systemic and historic weaknesses within our own vision for reform.

How does social enterprise hold up to the pressure of the real world? I don't know the answer, but I think there are pieces we can agree on.

For one, it's going to take actors of all types. Kennedy's career relationship with health care reform demonstrates a clear recognition that government, communities, and private enterprise all have to be involved to create sustainable solutions. Our Health Care blogger Tim Foley does a great job recapping these accomplishments and engagements in his tribute post: "Ted Kennedy's Still Unfinished Work in Health Care."

It's also going to require social entrepreneurs and the communities around them to occasionally plant a stake in the ground. We can be as excited as we want about innovative solutions for delivering health care, but do we view an option in which some are left behind as tolerable or not? At the end of the day, many of the issues we care about come down to our values and our perception of rights.

The language of "rights" is not always well received, even among social entrepreneur circles. While entrepreneurs look for opportunities, rights create obligations. And while obligation and opportunity are not mutually exclusive, they are sometimes unwelcome bedfellows.

In one of his last statements, Kennedy wrote: "The American people are on the march once more, and they will not stop until quality, affordable health care is the birthright of every American. And we are with them every step of the way."

Social entrepreneurs invested in health should steel themselves and be ready to take on the complicated question of markets and rights. They should be ready to lend a hand to any pharmaceutical company, government, or other government with a sincere interest in opening access and improve quality of care and use every ounce of their creativity to find ways to align incentives. But they should do that knowing that there are some points that cannot be compromised.

When someone passes away, I can think of no better way to celebrate their life than ask "what can we learn from their example?" I believe that Ted Kennedy's unwaivering commitment to a more just health system is a perfect context to re-evaluate our commitment to the promotion of rights. We may have the mechanisms. Do we have the will?

You can take action now by signing this petition: Complete Kennedy's Unfinished Work - Pass Healthcare Reform.

(Photo: Wikipedia)