No theory of justice can ground health care reform.

This essay argues that no theory or single conception of justice can provide a fundamental grounding for health care reform in the United States. To provide such a grounding, (1) there would need to be widespread support among citizens for a particular conception of justice, (2) citizens would have to apprehend this common conception of justice as providing the strongest available rationale for health care reform, and (3) this rationale would have to overwhelm countervailing values. I argue that neither of the first two conditions is met.