Is healthcare a human right?

[braalian]

And this, right here, is the primary disagreement we struggle with. I couldn't disagree more with this statement. But half the country sees it your way.

What on earth is government there for if not to provide basic services?

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

Sadly, people prefer illness and healthcare to good health.

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Look at how many millions of us have spent so many billions of hours being "entertained" by healthcare -- from Dr. Kildare, Marcus Welby,M.D., Ben Casey to Emergency, M*A*S*H, St. Elsewhere, to all the TV doctor series since then (Which happened since I quit watching TV)

Illness has been glamorized and doctors have been turned into heroes.

What else did we expect?

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[braalian]

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Look at how many millions of us have spent so many billions of hours being "entertained" by healthcare -- from Dr. Kildare, Marcus Welby,M.D., Ben Casey to Emergency, M*A*S*H, St. Elsewhere, to all the TV doctor series since then (Which happened since I quit watching TV)

Illness has been glamorized and doctors have been turned into heroes.

What else did we expect?

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TV is TV. Of course it’s drama-ed up

No procedural show depicts its chosen field remotely accurately

Law and Order doesn’t portray law enforcement or the judicial system realistically anymore than ER does the medical field

Not sure what your point is

 

[Woodznutz]

.

Look at how many millions of us have spent so many billions of hours being "entertained" by healthcare -- from Dr. Kildare, Marcus Welby,M.D., Ben Casey to Emergency, M*A*S*H, St. Elsewhere, to all the TV doctor series since then (Which happened since I quit watching TV)

Illness has been glamorized and doctors have been turned into heroes.

What else did we expect?

.

Illness has been normalized and turned into an industry.

 

[task0778]

Is healthcare a human right?​

Not in my opinion. No one has the right to receive healthcare or anything else from somebody else. Your health and wellbeing are exclusively your business and your responsibility, nobody else's.

Gov'ts may decide to offer assistance, subsidies, handouts, loans, etc. And they may also reduce or take them away as circumstances warrant.

 

[Seymour Flops]

Good points. However, all that has been discussed as well.

In the absence of available medical treatment how is the right to healthcare secured ("if a tree falls in the forest...")

Examples of absence of available medical treatment?

I suppose there is absence of medical treatment in places in which a government, for its own purposes, limits or disallows medical treament? Or . . . in places that are so remote that there are no medical facilities there.

So long as the human right to travel is not limited by a government, then people have the human right to go to where the medical treatment is.

 

[Woodznutz]

Examples of absence of available medical treatment?

I suppose there is absence of medical treatment in places in which a government, for its own purposes, limits or disallows medical treament? Or . . . in places that are so remote that there are no medical facilities there.

So long as the human right to travel is not limited by a government, then people have the human right to go to where the medical treatment is.

I think what compels the argument is the moral obligation of the doctors to treat anyone, not an intrinsic right to be treated. That said the individual has the right to be healthy (or not) if he or she so chooses.

 

[braalian]

I think what compels the argument is the moral obligation of the doctors to treat anyone, not an intrinsic right to be treated. That said the individual has the right to be healthy (or not) if he or she so chooses.

While many people do bring certain chronic conditions upon themselves, you do realize that people also can become ill for no reason other than bad luck?

People who lead healthy lives can have congenital conditions, get cancer, have a stroke, get in an accident

You’re really, really focused on the healthy lifestyle bit. Healthy people still get sick and still require medical care

 

[task0778]

While many people do bring certain chronic conditions upon themselves, you do realize that people also can become ill for no reason other than bad luck?

People who lead healthy lives can have congenital conditions, get cancer, have a stroke, get in an accident

You’re really, really focused on the healthy lifestyle bit. Healthy people still get sick and still require medical care

None of that requires another person or the gov't to pay for their treatment. As a person and as a society, we may choose to do so, but no one has the right to healthcare whether they deserve it or not.

 

[Woodznutz]

While many people do bring certain chronic conditions upon themselves, you do realize that people also can become ill for no reason other than bad luck?

People who lead healthy lives can have congenital conditions, get cancer, have a stroke, get in an accident

You’re really, really focused on the healthy lifestyle bit. Healthy people still get sick and still require medical care

Of course, but an overview of the health problem must focus on what the individual can do for their own health, and that is lifestyle. What is a constant but unspoken truth throughout all these discussions is the abysmal ignorance of the subject by most people. This ignorance is carefully promoted and cultivated by those who profit by the illness of others. Worse is the hubris on display when the medical industry is the victim of its own success revealed by the current shortage of doctors and nurses, burgeoning patient numbers, and confusion in the healthcare insurance industry.

Reminds me of a recent event in my apartment building. A tenant, completely ignorant about how a toilet works, kept flushing a clogged-up toilet, thinking that was the remedy, and flooded his apartment and the apartment on the floor beneath him.

 

[Concerned American]

People who lead healthy lives can have congenital conditions, get cancer, have a stroke, get in an accident

Granted. Where is the clause in the constitution that requires me to foot the bill for these unfortunate things that happen to the people you are describing. Personal care is the responsibility of the PERSON---not the taxpayer. I didn't take them to raise.

 

[dblack]

What on earth is government there for if not to provide basic services?

To protect our rights and keep the peace. To protect our freedom to provide for ourselves, how we see fit.

It's not here to provide basic services. That's not why we need a government. It's not there to take care of us.