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Health Care as a Human Right
Submitted by vg9 on Wed, 10/08/2008 - 1:35pm.
Finally, a politician who isn't afraid to tell the truth: The highlight of last night's debate was when Barak Obama had the decency to say what we all know, that health care is a right. John McCain wouldn't say that last night, and Sarah Pallin didn't say it last week, either.
That's because the McCain health plan is more about increasing business for private health insurance companies and making it easier for them to cherry pick who they want to insure than about expanding and protecting affordable, quality health care for everyone.
Don't we all know someone like Obama's mother, who had to fight to get her health insurance coverage while fighting a terminal illness? Obama said he would address the insurance company practice of trying to avoid paying by labeling conditions as pre-existing. McCain, on the other hand, would eliminate the laws that require insurance companies to like mammograms, or vaccinations, or maternity care.
Pandering to the insurance companies does not bring anything new to Washington. It's not being a maverick. But declaring that health care is a right of all Americans is something new, and is a change all of us can use.
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I Beg To Differ
Although access to medical services ought to be relatively affordable for all Americans, labeling health care as a "right" is downright unamerican. Once you cross that threshhold, then what?
Unfortunately, since few of us can provide our own doctoring and surgery, the alleged "right" is dependent upon someone else providing the service. How will you regiment doctors into providing services? How will you ration the limited resources? Bottom line - who deserves to die and who deserves to live? And are you willing to let corrupt politicians make the decision?
Health care is NOT a right, it is a trade between someone who needs a service and another who is qualified to provide it.
You thought you knew. Now you do.
Tip of the Spear
What is a human right then?
If health care is not a right, then is education? Do you believe we have ANY rights? The interesting thing about believing that health care is a right, is that when you don't believe it is, you don't have universal health coverage. Every other industrialized country in the world has universal coverage and they believe health care is a right. AND guess what? They spend twice as much as we do on health care. So it's not believing it's a right that drives up costs. It's much more about our system of paying doctors and hospitals.
What LindaB said
We spend $2.1 trillion on healthcare, and we still treat people shabbily. We can provide care to the people who need it.