No One Has a Right to Health Care

[Political Junky]

No One Has a Right to Health Care
by Jacob G. Hornberger February 3, 2016

Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says that everyone has a right to health care. Unfortunately, none of his presidential opponents, Democrat or Republican, is going to challenge him on the point. They’re too scared that they’d lose votes by challenging a standard socialist shibboleth in America.

Sanders’ assertion only goes to show how American socialists (i.e., progressives) have warped and perverted the concept of rights within the minds of the American people. The fact is that no one has a right to health care any more than he has a right to a home, a car, food, spouse, or anything else.

The correct concept of rights was enunciated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, the document that Americans ironically celebrate every Fourth of July. Jefferson observed that people have been endowed with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Where does the right to life fit in with healthcare

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO THE HEALTHCARE YOU CAN AFFORD.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO PURSUE LIFE , LIBERTY AND PURSUE HAPPINESS AND HOPEFULLY THAT INCLUDES BUYING A HEALTH INSURANCE POLICY.


THAT DOES NOT MEAN YOUR TAXPAYING NEIGHBOR IS REQUIRED TO BUY ONE FOR YOU.

IF AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE INSURANCE IS IMPORTANT TO YOU BECOME GAINFULLY EMPLOYED AND TELL THE BUREAUCRATS TO KEEP THEIR HANDS OFF..


.

Insurance companies should not have the right to deny you health insurance due to a pre-existing condition or deny payment on a policy you bought. Thanks to Obama Care, they can't.

 

[ZackB]

Even prior to the ACA nobody was denied access to healthcare. If you walked into a publicly funded hospital with a stab wound or drug overdose they were required to take care of you.

An E.R. charges a thousand dollars for a visit, where people with pneumonia, gastroenteritis, panic attacks, etc. go when a doctor's visit would be vastly less expensive, if they had the insurance coverage. Who's really paying?

I am paying for it, as are other taxpayers. Nonetheless, I have no interest in paying for your "preventative care", rubbers, or cock enhancement surgery. However, since I have no desire to move elsewhere to live with Muslims and other trash I am stuck having to pay for YOUR healthcare, aren't I?

I have no interest in paying for YOUR wars or corporate bailouts.

Yeah, well, you probably don't have any money anyway. "Paying for it" does not mean getting less in gob-ment checks, fruitcake.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

Some of the rhetoric on here shows a mind set from the stone age.

 

[NYcarbineer]

So no one has the right to own a gun?

 

[norwegen]

Healthcare in America is not a right. It's a requirement.

 

[Little-Acorn]

The OP emphasizes the Conservative attitude.

So does the Constitution.

It gives the Fed govt only limited powers, and forbids it from any others.

 

[Little-Acorn]

Healthcare in America is not a right. It's a requirement.

So is food.

But that doesn’t mean the govt can force other people to pay for yours.

In fact, the Fed is forbidden to do that by the Constitution.

 

[norwegen]

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO THE HEALTHCARE YOU CAN AFFORD.

And in the measure you wish to pursue it. Just like the freedom of worship and the right to bear arms. You may exercise those rights at your leisure.

Healthcare is no longer a right. Now we are forced to act.

 

[norwegen]

Healthcare in America is not a right. It's a requirement.

So is food.

The government does not force us to eat.

Yet.

 

[Tom Horn]

No One Has a Right to Health Care
by Jacob G. Hornberger February 3, 2016

Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says that everyone has a right to health care. Unfortunately, none of his presidential opponents, Democrat or Republican, is going to challenge him on the point. They’re too scared that they’d lose votes by challenging a standard socialist shibboleth in America.

Sanders’ assertion only goes to show how American socialists (i.e., progressives) have warped and perverted the concept of rights within the minds of the American people. The fact is that no one has a right to health care any more than he has a right to a home, a car, food, spouse, or anything else.

The correct concept of rights was enunciated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, the document that Americans ironically celebrate every Fourth of July. Jefferson observed that people have been endowed with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

What a load of crap. Of course everybody has the right to healthcare....that's one of the elements that make us what's called a "society". We have the right to keep others from passing along their viruses and dying in our streets. We have the right to immunize our kids so they don't get life-disabling diseases. We have the right to have access to basic medical care and preventive care whether your elitist asshole author likes it or not.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

We have a right to it in the UK as well. We all pay a bit in every month and that gives us peace of mind.Cradle to grave,rich or poor. It is Britains greatest achievement.
It builds community and social cohesion.

 

[Little-Acorn]

We have a right to it in the UK as well.

No, you don't.

You merely have a government that pretends it's a right, and taxes you for it, and gives you substandard health care in return.

 

[Little-Acorn]

What a load of crap. Of course everybody has the right to healthcare....that's one of the elements that make us what's called a "society". We have the right to keep others from passing along their viruses and dying in our streets. We have the right to immunize our kids so they don't get life-disabling diseases. We have the right to have access to basic medical care and preventive care whether your elitist asshole author likes it or not.

I guess you missed my post, where I refuted all that. Here it is.

Comment?

---------------------------------------------------

What Are Our "Rights"?

You hear an awful lot about our "rights" these days. And justly so-- our rights, in this country, are our most valuable possession, outside of life itself. And some people say that our basic rights, are even more important than life. When Patrick Henry defiantly told the British government during colonial times, "Give me liberty or give me death!", he was stating that he considered a life without liberty, to be worse than no life at all (death).

So, what are our rights?

The Declaration of Independence mentions a few, and implies that there are others. So does the Constitution-- in fact, it names many, and categorically states that those aren't the only rights people have.

The Declaration says that among our rights, are "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness". It also says that these were given to us "by [our] Creator". Take that as you will, depending on whatever religious outlook you hold. But one of the implications is that, wherever our rights came from, they were NOT granted us by government, or by our fellow men at all. We had them long before government existed. And these various government documents simply say that government cannot take them away or interfere with them.

Here we refer, of course, only to normal law-abiding citizens. The Constitution contains the phrase "except by due course of law" in many places. If you rob someone, assault him, destroy his property, murder him etc., then you can legitimately be deprived of liberty (you go to jail), property (you get fined), or even life in some extreme cases (Death Penalty). Outside of such lawbreaking, your rights are held inviolate.

But today, our "rights" seem to be multiplying without end. This is not necessarily bad-- as we said, rights are extremely valuable. But, are we getting ahead of ourselves, granting to ourselves so many things under the name of "rights"?

"Old Rights"

Some are pretty indisputable, such as the ones mentioned in the Declaration. The ones mentioned in the Constitution, especially in the first ten Amendments (which was even called the "Bill of Rights" by its authors), are similarly vital... though they seem to be undergoing a methodical erosion. Freedom of religion, right to peaceably assemble, freedom of speech and of the press, the right to keep and bear arms, etc. all are very basic, and it is scary to think of trying to exist in a country in which any of these do not exist.

New "rights"

But lately we have heard about other "rights", such as the right to work, the right to decent medical treatment, the right to a decent standard of living. These all sound salutary-- what kind of society would we have, if working for a living were forbidden, decent health care were forbidden, etc.?

But there is a big gap between "forbidden" and "compulsory". The rights found in the country's founding documents, are compulsory, to the extent that we all have them whether we want them or not (who wouldn't want them?), and no one can take them away.

What about, say, the right to decent medical treatment? Those who favor this "right", point out that they don't necessarily mean the rare, exotic, super-expensive treatments; nor "elective" procedures such as cosmetic liposuction or a luxury suite in the hospital. They usually mean that, if you get sick or injured, you have the "right" to have a doctor look at you, make sure the problem isn't unusually dangerous, and administer the routine treatments needed to help you on the way back to good health. An absence of such routine treatment, could occasionally put your life in peril, obviously-- a simple broken bone could lead to infection if untreated, and possibly far more. But there are differences between the "Old Rights", as we've called the ones in the founding documents, and these "New 'Rights'".

Your "right to life" protects something that no man gave you-- you simply had it, from the day you were born. Nobody had to go to extraordinary effort to create it for you, outside of natural processes that move forward on their own without deliberate effort or guidance by humans, government, etc.

Same with the "right to liberty". You were your own man, as it were, the day you were born. Nobody had to go to special effort to create that status for you. In fact, they would have had to go to considerable effort to take those things away, by deliberately coming to you and killing you; or by building a jail and imprisoning you etc. If they leave you alone, you have life and liberty, and can pursue happiness. They have to work at it to deprive you of those things.

The Difference in the "New 'Rights'"

But this isn't the case with what we've called "New 'Rights'". In order for you to get the kind of routine medical treatment its advocates describe, somebody has to stop what he is doing and perform work for you-- the doctor who examines you, the clerk who sets up your appointment, the people who built the office or hospital where you get treatment.

If this routine medical treatment is to be called a "right" on par with our "Old Rights", doesn't that mean that you must be given it when needed? And doesn't it follow, then, that others must be compelled to do the normal things needed to treat you?

Uh-oh.

How does this compulsion upon those others (doctors, clerks etc.) fit in with THEIR rights? They "have" to treat you? What if their schedules are full-- do they have to bump another patient to make room for you? What if they were spending precious quality time with their families-- do they have to abandon their own kids, to fulfill your "right" to treatment that only they can give? Doesn't this fit the description of "involuntary servitude"?

This is an important difference between the rights envisioned by the country's founders, and the new "rights" advocated by more modern pundits. In order to secure your "old rights", people merely had to leave you alone... do nothing to bother you. in fact, they were required to. But these new so-called "rights", required that people go out of their way to actively contribute to you.

And that "requirement", in fact violates THEIR rights-- specifically, their right to liberty. They must be left free to live their lives as THEY chose-- free from compulsion to come and help you out. If they want to help you, that's fine-- often it's the decent and moral thing to do. But they cannot be forced to help you, no matter how much you need the help.

These new "rights", are in fact not rights at all. They are obligations upon others, imposed on them without their agreement or consent.

Beware of announcements that you have the "right" to this or that. Ask yourself if this "right", forces someone else to do something for you, that he didn't previously agree to. If it does, it's not a "right" possessed by you. It's an attempt by the announcer, to force others into servitude... an attempt, in fact, to violate the others' rights.[/QUOTE]

 

[Tom Horn]

I'm not talking about single-payer or the monstrosity of Barry-Care. I'm talking about free or inexpensive clinics for the poor financed by taxpayers for the common good. If you have money you're entitled to as good healthcare as you can afford....without having to sit for hours waiting your turn with the peons. Anybody who's ever lived in Spokane, Wash knows where western canucks fleeing the waiting-lists get their healthcare....in SPOKANE.

 

[Tom Horn]

What a load of crap. Of course everybody has the right to healthcare....that's one of the elements that make us what's called a "society". We have the right to keep others from passing along their viruses and dying in our streets. We have the right to immunize our kids so they don't get life-disabling diseases. We have the right to have access to basic medical care and preventive care whether your elitist asshole author likes it or not.

I guess you missed my post, where I refuted all that. Here it is.

Comment?

---------------------------------------------------

What Are Our "Rights"?

You hear an awful lot about our "rights" these days. And justly so-- our rights, in this country, are our most valuable possession, outside of life itself. And some people say that our basic rights, are even more important than life. When Patrick Henry defiantly told the British government during colonial times, "Give me liberty or give me death!", he was stating that he considered a life without liberty, to be worse than no life at all (death).

So, what are our rights?

The Declaration of Independence mentions a few, and implies that there are others. So does the Constitution-- in fact, it names many, and categorically states that those aren't the only rights people have.

The Declaration says that among our rights, are "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness". It also says that these were given to us "by [our] Creator". Take that as you will, depending on whatever religious outlook you hold. But one of the implications is that, wherever our rights came from, they were NOT granted us by government, or by our fellow men at all. We had them long before government existed. And these various government documents simply say that government cannot take them away or interfere with them.

Here we refer, of course, only to normal law-abiding citizens. The Constitution contains the phrase "except by due course of law" in many places. If you rob someone, assault him, destroy his property, murder him etc., then you can legitimately be deprived of liberty (you go to jail), property (you get fined), or even life in some extreme cases (Death Penalty). Outside of such lawbreaking, your rights are held inviolate.

But today, our "rights" seem to be multiplying without end. This is not necessarily bad-- as we said, rights are extremely valuable. But, are we getting ahead of ourselves, granting to ourselves so many things under the name of "rights"?

"Old Rights"

Some are pretty indisputable, such as the ones mentioned in the Declaration. The ones mentioned in the Constitution, especially in the first ten Amendments (which was even called the "Bill of Rights" by its authors), are similarly vital... though they seem to be undergoing a methodical erosion. Freedom of religion, right to peaceably assemble, freedom of speech and of the press, the right to keep and bear arms, etc. all are very basic, and it is scary to think of trying to exist in a country in which any of these do not exist.

New "rights"

But lately we have heard about other "rights", such as the right to work, the right to decent medical treatment, the right to a decent standard of living. These all sound salutary-- what kind of society would we have, if working for a living were forbidden, decent health care were forbidden, etc.?

But there is a big gap between "forbidden" and "compulsory". The rights found in the country's founding documents, are compulsory, to the extent that we all have them whether we want them or not (who wouldn't want them?), and no one can take them away.

What about, say, the right to decent medical treatment? Those who favor this "right", point out that they don't necessarily mean the rare, exotic, super-expensive treatments; nor "elective" procedures such as cosmetic liposuction or a luxury suite in the hospital. They usually mean that, if you get sick or injured, you have the "right" to have a doctor look at you, make sure the problem isn't unusually dangerous, and administer the routine treatments needed to help you on the way back to good health. An absence of such routine treatment, could occasionally put your life in peril, obviously-- a simple broken bone could lead to infection if untreated, and possibly far more. But there are differences between the "Old Rights", as we've called the ones in the founding documents, and these "New 'Rights'".

Your "right to life" protects something that no man gave you-- you simply had it, from the day you were born. Nobody had to go to extraordinary effort to create it for you, outside of natural processes that move forward on their own without deliberate effort or guidance by humans, government, etc.

Same with the "right to liberty". You were your own man, as it were, the day you were born. Nobody had to go to special effort to create that status for you. In fact, they would have had to go to considerable effort to take those things away, by deliberately coming to you and killing you; or by building a jail and imprisoning you etc. If they leave you alone, you have life and liberty, and can pursue happiness. They have to work at it to deprive you of those things.

The Difference in the "New 'Rights'"

But this isn't the case with what we've called "New 'Rights'". In order for you to get the kind of routine medical treatment its advocates describe, somebody has to stop what he is doing and perform work for you-- the doctor who examines you, the clerk who sets up your appointment, the people who built the office or hospital where you get treatment.

If this routine medical treatment is to be called a "right" on par with our "Old Rights", doesn't that mean that you must be given it when needed? And doesn't it follow, then, that others must be compelled to do the normal things needed to treat you?

Uh-oh.

How does this compulsion upon those others (doctors, clerks etc.) fit in with THEIR rights? They "have" to treat you? What if their schedules are full-- do they have to bump another patient to make room for you? What if they were spending precious quality time with their families-- do they have to abandon their own kids, to fulfill your "right" to treatment that only they can give? Doesn't this fit the description of "involuntary servitude"?

This is an important difference between the rights envisioned by the country's founders, and the new "rights" advocated by more modern pundits. In order to secure your "old rights", people merely had to leave you alone... do nothing to bother you. in fact, they were required to. But these new so-called "rights", required that people go out of their way to actively contribute to you.

And that "requirement", in fact violates THEIR rights-- specifically, their right to liberty. They must be left free to live their lives as THEY chose-- free from compulsion to come and help you out. If they want to help you, that's fine-- often it's the decent and moral thing to do. But they cannot be forced to help you, no matter how much you need the help.

These new "rights", are in fact not rights at all. They are obligations upon others, imposed on them without their agreement or consent.

Beware of announcements that you have the "right" to this or that. Ask yourself if this "right", forces someone else to do something for you, that he didn't previously agree to. If it does, it's not a "right" possessed by you. It's an attempt by the announcer, to force others into servitude... an attempt, in fact, to violate the others' rights.

[/QUOTE]

Blah blah blah.....senseless defense of a senseless concept. Lose your job and healthcare and let's see what you say then. I have and I will tell you that when I got it back, I remembered the fear of what would happen if I got sick or injured.

 

[dblack]

To claim a "right" to health care, one must claim a right to be served by others.

 

[Arianrhod]

We have a right to it in the UK as well.

No, you don't.

You merely have a government that pretends it's a right, and taxes you for it, and gives you substandard health care in return.

I love it when Americans tell people in other countries that they don't know what's happening in those countries unless some dumbass Murican on a message board tells them about the facts on the ground in a place where the dumbass Murican has never been.

 

[Tom Horn]

To claim a "right" to health care, one must claim a right to be served by others.

Horseshit.

 

[Arianrhod]

To claim a "right" to health care, one must claim a right to be served by others.

Most normal people appreciate the fact that their mothers were "served" by the medical staff in the delivery room.

 

[norwegen]

financed by taxpayers for the common good.

That is not the common good.