Is Health Care a Right?

[Henry Hawk]

This is an excellent article that supports my position on health care.....     

Is Health Care a Right?
by Walter E. Williams         


Most politicians, and probably most Americans, see health care as a right. Thus, whether a person has the means to pay for medical services or not, he is nonetheless entitled to them. Let's ask ourselves a few questions about this vision.
Say a person, let's call him Harry, suffers from diabetes and he has no means to pay a laboratory for blood work, a doctor for treatment and a pharmacy for medication. Does Harry have a right to XYZ lab's and Dr. Jones' services and a prescription from a pharmacist? And, if those services are not provided without charge, should Harry be able to call for criminal sanctions against those persons for violating his rights to health care?

You say, "Williams, that would come very close to slavery if one person had the right to force someone to serve him without pay." You're right. Suppose instead of Harry being able to force a lab, doctor and pharmacy to provide services without pay, Congress uses its taxing power to take a couple of hundred dollars out of the paycheck of some American to give to Harry so that he could pay the lab, doctor and pharmacist. Would there be any difference in principle, namely forcibly using one person to serve the purposes of another? There would be one important strategic difference, that of concealment. Most Americans, I would hope, would be offended by the notion of directly and visibly forcing one person to serve the purposes of another. Congress' use of the tax system to invisibly accomplish the same end is more palatable to the average American.

True rights, such as those in our Constitution, or those considered to be natural or human rights, exist simultaneously among people. That means exercise of a right by one person does not diminish those held by another. In other words, my rights to speech or travel impose no obligations on another except those of non-interference. If we apply ideas behind rights to health care to my rights to speech or travel, my free speech rights would require government-imposed obligations on others to provide me with an auditorium, television studio or radio station. My right to travel freely would require government-imposed obligations on others to provide me with airfare and hotel accommodations.

For Congress to guarantee a right to health care, or any other good or service, whether a person can afford it or not, it must diminish someone else's rights, namely their rights to their earnings. The reason is that Congress has no resources of its very own. Moreover, there is no Santa Claus, Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy giving them those resources. The fact that government has no resources of its very own forces one to recognize that in order for government to give one American citizen a dollar, it must first, through intimidation, threats and coercion, confiscate that dollar from some other American. If one person has a right to something he did not earn, of necessity it requires that another person not have a right to something that he did earn.

To argue that people have a right that imposes obligations on another is an absurd concept. A better term for new-fangled rights to health care, decent housing and food is wishes. If we called them wishes, I would be in agreement with most other Americans for I, too, wish that everyone had adequate health care, decent housing and nutritious meals. However, if we called them human wishes, instead of human rights, there would be confusion and cognitive dissonance. The average American would cringe at the thought of government punishing one person because he refused to be pressed into making someone else's wish come true.

None of my argument is to argue against charity. Reaching into one's own pockets to assist his fellow man in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else's pockets to do so is despicable and deserves condemnation.

[me]

He seems to have pretty much hit the nail on the head with that article. 

[Sandy Eggo]

All three of you are missing the pointm

[Henry Hawk]

I am NOT missing the pointm.....

[me]

I'm not missing the pointm or the point.....

All three of you are missing the pointm

[Palehorse]

The Hippocratic oath taken by every physician:

The Hippocratic Oath (Modern Version)

"I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath

Nowhere in there do I see any mention of a prerequisite requiring payment, yet that is exactly what every physician expects - for right or wrong - and the reality in society today is that unless disease is proactively treated it is destined to spread; to those with health coverage as well as those without it. And physicians expect to be compensated for their services.

The philanthropic side of humanity and the profession of medicine demands that all required care be made available to all who need it, without regard to their ability to compensate those administering the services / aid.

Each year this country spends billions in the form of medical and medicinal aid to those peoples who inhabit third world and war torn countries; yet a study covering the years 2008 - 2009 indicated that 86.7 million American citizens do not have health care coverage and cannot afford the care necessary to treat their conditions.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/04/uninsured.epidemic.obama/

Denying these individuals access to proper healthcare flies in the face of historical Christian teaching, not to mention it is tantamount to turning your back to hundreds of thousands of dying fellow Americans each and every year.

Reform is about realignment of values as a means toward adjusting them to present day society's perspectives. So I guess what the opposition is saying here is that the "me" decade has now changed to the "I got mine and screw you" decade?!

"As you do to the least of them, so you do unto me" are just words in a book of fiction after all, and not the real "word of God"!

[Palehorse]

He seems to have pretty much hit the nail on the head with that article.

[Henry Hawk]

Not only do they think it is a right, Biden ALSO thinks  'This is a Big F*#cking Deal' ...he even says so with an open mic...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQeNikp1Rj8

[Exterminator]

If the function of government is not to provide for the well being of the citizens, what is it?

[me]

If the function of government is not to provide for the well being of the citizens, what is it?

Where in the hell did you come up with that idea anyway? 

[The Troll]

[The Troll]

                                            HEALTHCARE BILL SIGNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Paraphase.  Dr Seuss.

   President Obama meant what he said and he said what he meant , Democrat President 100%.

The Troll. 

[Henry Hawk]

Not only do they think it is a right, Biden ALSO thinks  'This is a Big F*#cking Deal' ...he even says so with an open mic...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQeNikp1Rj8

I guess Teddy Roosevelt had the "square deal".....FDR had the "new deal".......and now Obama has the "Big F*#cking Deal"....

[LOsborne]

If the function of government is not to provide for the well being of the citizens, what is it?

Where in the hell did you come up with that idea anyway? 

Preamble to the Constitution maybe?  ..."promote the general welfare"...

And I am curious, me, if you don't believe this is the function of government, what do you believe is the function of government?

[Henry Hawk]

BUT, is this bill really going to promote the "general welfare" of the people?...

or is it going to utlimatly 'Burden' the general welfare of the people....

why is it some states are very concerned to the point of "sueing" because NOW, from what they now believe, this health-care "overhaul".... will make as many as 15 million more Americans eligible for Medicaid nationwide starting in 2014 and will cost the states billions to administer....some states are already struggling, NOW this.....

I think many folks are not looking at the BIG picture here.....I know it is a good thing for folks to have proper HC, THAT is not what is being disputed...............how to pay for this IS.

same for making this a "greener earth"...........EVERYONE is for it, just finding the proper way to achieve it without bankrupting or destroying the economy to do so....

our gov is being wreckless....to say the least.