Why do libs think health care is a right? What next, car insurance? How about free food for everyone?

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of 'Free' Health Care


Every new 'right' the U.S. government has promised has turned into a massively expensive failure, yet the media continue to cheer supporters of tax-funded programs.








Americans are obsessed with rights. We always have been.





But the concept of rights our forefathers laid out in the Declaration of Independence has changed dramatically. Those rights – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – were acknowledged to come from the Almighty, given equally to all people. Today’s rights come from Almighty Government.





Health care is the newest “right.” From presidential candidates’ universal plans to the return of HillaryCare to Michael Moore’s movie “Sicko,” it’s all over the media.





Calling it a “right” is an emotional argument advanced by those who want others to pay for their health care. They bring out the children and ask whether anyone can deny them the “basic human right” of health care – but don’t bother with the evidence showing how health care in this country would be harmed by government control.





A look at other modern “rights” might give us a clue about how well a new system would work. These rights started out as privileges, among them education and a paid retirement.





Now education is not only considered a right, it’s a mandate. How well has it worked? American students attend school at least until their teen years, but 15-year-olds ranked 24th out of 29 countries in aptitude for “real-life math problems,” according to The Washington Post. Literacy surveys suggest one in five American adults is functionally illiterate. And taxpayers keep shelling out money to fund the system.





Americans also cherish the right to retire – but we expect to be supported in our old age. Younger workers and employers are forced to support retirees, funding another right.





And how well has that worked? The poorly designed, outdated Social Security system is disintegrating rapidly as the number of retirees balloons. But once you’ve established a right, it’s difficult to take it away. The government, which promises such rights, must go to its sugar daddy – taxpayers – to keep the rights coming.





We’re already well on our way toward the health care right/mandate. Want to be more like Canada? It’s not that far off. Cato’s Michael Cannon has pointed out that third parties in America pay 86 cents of every dollar of our health care – about the same as Canada’s socialized system.





What we – or rather, those third parties – pay for health care is already determined by the government as well. Emory University medical professor Robert Swerlick has noted that “the pricing of medical care in this country is either directly or indirectly dictated by Medicare.” This market meddling even causes doctor shortages, he says, in needed areas of specialty.





Prescription drugs are already considered a right, thanks to political moves like the Medicare drug benefit and massive media support. A Business %26amp; Media Institute study found broadcast journalists treating prescription drugs as though they grew on trees. Overall, the coverage supported the idea that medications should magically be available to everyone at far lower costs.





Of course, the magic behind new “rights” is your money.





Cannon and fellow Cato expert Michael Tanner explained problems with tax-funded care in their book “Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It.” If health care is guaranteed to everyone, how much does everyone get? Who decides who receives what, and how would the care be administered? What happens if everyone wants the most expensive treatment available?





“With the wide variety of medical tests and treatments that consumers may claim as their right, someone at some point must decide where the right to health care ends, lest the nation be bankrupted,” they wrote.





We’re well on our way toward that as well. Our “rights” to Social Security and Medicare devour about 40 percent of the federal budget. State and local property tax revenue, which normally funds education, mushroomed about 35 percent between 2000 and 2005, according to the Tax Foundation. We can’t afford any more “rights” like that.





But the left says tax-funded care is right for the children. Meanwhile, what becomes of them? They’re growing up in an America where the “rights” mentality is deeply ingrained, and the media continue to feed them with it.





When the children come of age, perhaps they’ll want the right to a job. They won’t remember that France already tested that idea for us, and it led to high unemployment and rioting. Perhaps they’ll guarantee Disney vacations for all families and force childless Americans to pay for it. “The pursuit of” will conveniently fade away as they look to government to guarantee happiness.





They will know less and less of a true right – liberty – and have no idea where it comes from.

Why do libs think health care is a right? What next, car insurance? How about free food for everyone?
Man how did you get such a long question on Y!A?





What is funny in this entire discussion is the socialists who want government control of health care will tell you that other countries do it so should we. Which reminds me of my mother, she used to chide me when I used such a phony argument was that if every one else jumped off the bridge would I also.





She was right, just because other countries have tripped down the path of socialism does not justify AMerica doing it.





No one in this country is without health care, anything to the contrary is just a LIE. YOu can get care when you need it, just go to an ER and they will care for you, and the most amazing thing about this one simple great feature of our country, you will receive care regardless of your ability to pay.





SO you see, this whole thing is smoke and mirrors, kind of like class envy. The socialists will tell you you do not get what those who have more money get, which is a LIE. Care is care.
Reply:Being a bleeding heart is an easy sell:





Look at those poor people, we need to help them.





Look at those poor kids with no health insurance, we need to help them.





Look at these children born in the US to illegal parents, they are automatic citizens and we need to help them.





Look at all those uneducated, we need to help them.





Look at all those poor old folks, we need to help them.





The problem is that we will bankrupt the entire country with costly and unsustainalbe programs.





Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security will bankrupt this country in the next 25 years and people want to add MORE social programs? It is complete nonsense!





They aren't working now!





It is an easy sell to the American people and sounds good:


Government will take care of you, just vote for me.








"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years."
Reply:The U.S. is the only developed country in the world without universal health coverage.





According to a recent study by the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine, 18,000 people die prematurely each year as a result of being uninsured. The National Academies’ Institute of Medicine is a private health research organization created by Congress. Their study found that uninsured individuals suffer from poorer health and development than their insured counterparts. It also said that entire communities suffer, since health facilities may move out of areas with low rates of insurance coverage.





CEPR recently released a paper which determined that, in 2000, the average cost of health care per person in the 21 countries with longer life expectancies than that of the US was $2,230, while the average per capita health care costs in the US amounted to $4,540 and the size of the gap is increasing rapidly. The paper states, "The power of interest groups opposed to any serious reform effort (e.g. the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry), dims the prospects for serious health care reform in the United States any time in the near future."





Sure, you can get the help you need to handle depression, anxiety or even something as common as hay fever. But should you ever need to buy an individual health policy, you're likely to find that insurers consider you high-risk or even untouchable. You're likely to pay more for a life or disability policy as well, and perhaps be denied a security clearance.





In her study, Pollitz found that roughly 90% of applicants in what's known as less-than-perfect health were unable to buy individual policies at standard rates, while 37% were rejected outright.





A 2005 Harvard survey found that most Americans have the symptoms for one or more mental health disorders at some time in their life, but most cases are mild. The findings:





* Anxiety disorders, experienced by nearly 29% of Americans during their lifetime, are the most-prevalent class of mental illness.


* Mood disorders are experienced by 20.8% of Americans.


* Impulse-control disorders are experienced by 24.8% of Americans.


* Substance disorders are seen in 14.6% of Americans.





Only 41% of patients with disorders lasting 12 months sought treatment, the study found.








The overhead cost of an insurance claim from a company is 12%. The overhead cost of medicare is 3%. I keep hearing lets give the money back to the people and let them decide what to do. If you are concerned about innocent life, what about people who have done nothing wrong dying from disease? If you are so concerned with happiness what about the people going bankrupt because they can't afford a surgery that there provider wouldn't cover? (Medical costs are the highest cause of bankruptcy in the U.S.)





Have Christian Conservatives really become so worried about a child in the womb that they have forgotten about those already out of it?





As for the guy below me, one trip to the ER can be up to $10k. If you don't have the money to go to the doctor you don't have the money to go to the ER. Besides, all they have to do is stabilize you. Once it is no longer life threatening they do not have to give anymore treatment and often times won't (they risk bankrupting there hospital if they give everyone treatment).
Reply:Death row and other prison inmates get free health care but ordinary citizens who are not covered by an employer plan or can not afford coverage are out of luck.
Reply:we should all have flood insurance on our homes too. it is just the smart thing to do....and disaster insurance. who cares that i live in NJ, you never know when an earthquake or hurricane could be coming with global warming and all. i saw "the day after tomorrow" so i know what will happen in the future. cons cant fool me. at least if the libs offered life insurance i would use that. we're all gonna die someday
Reply:We are, of course, the only western nation without health care provided as a national project.





Why does this matter? Well, this means our businesses, which must provide for the nation's health care, cannot compete as effectively as nations where the collective, rather than individual businesses pay for health care. So, it's just good business sense for America to have it.





Second, in America, businesses, including insurers, must by law maximize profits. This is a very poor model for health care.





Since the countries of the northern europe have very high taxes, very high standards of living, very high satisfaction in their lifestyle, and far superior health and educational attainment than America does, your analysis is... bogus.





Fortunately for you, when you experience the cruel hand of fate upon your life plans, and you will at some point, most of your fellow countrymen understand that there is no liberty where there is no security and will help you out. Please have the decency to be chagrined.
Reply:Ok then, if you don't want free health care for all then legalize all the drugs. The government shouldn't be telling us what we can and can't consume. It will end the war on drugs and drug abuse will fall. The reason drug use will fall is because it is no longer the forbidden and it may kill off the stupid people.
Reply:I'm pretty sure you didn't say this... why don't conservatives cite anything... and steal everything?





but, to your point... I don't think education or health care is a right... but I don't think socializing either is a bad idea...





you talk about where the U.S. is in education... but who is number 1? and what kind of system do they have?





socialist... just like ours... I'm not even aware of any kind of decent nation with a private school system?





and the best health care systems in the world... also socialist, according to the WHO...





and I can tell a difference between a car and a life... just me...
Reply:Q: How many brain cells do neocons rely on to try to get their point across?


A: Just enough to repeat the stagnant nonsensical rambling talking points of their righteous chickenhawk leaders.
Reply:Yes--I pray that we do become more like Oh Canada!!
Reply:also collage education, cable tv and internet,
Reply:Cultural and social perceptions of rights and privileges change over time, as they should.





Fifty years ago, blacks didn't have the "right" to vote. One hundred years ago, women didn't have the "right" to vote. Two hundred years ago, men who didn't own property didn't have the "right" to vote.





Today, anyone who is 18 and is not a felon has the "right" to vote.





See my point?
Reply:The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee access to health care as a right of citizenship. 28 industrialized nations have single payer universal health care systems.
Reply:I do not think it is a "right."
Reply:Feel better? Both the left and the right often have difficulty differentiating the legal and the ethical. Every American "ought" to have decent health care. But it can't be a right, simply because somebody else has to provide it. Just as your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins, your right to health care stops before it gets to where I have to give it to you. Free speech is free because you can just talk, without anybody having to give you anything. I personally think there's little the market can do to "fix" our problems with our health-care delivery "system," which isn't a system at all, and we should, as a matter of compassion, have universal coverage for health care, but before we do so, we must have a debate over what is enough, and we must be willing to be unfair, allowing those who can get more than the basic package to do so, since to do otherwise would stifle innovation. So far, we've been unwilling even to enter into the appropriate conversation.
Reply:Well do you think they should stop all the rights given to us? Lets disiband the police force and other systems the tax money goes to, people are still killing each other. Lets disband the right to get drugs, as you said, so that people who need them die or kill others. I mean women and minority groups weren't even mention in the Constitution. Btw the Declaration of Independence didn't tell us our rights the Constitution did.
Reply:Too bad for you self righteous types that human rights always gets in the way of your individual right to be selfish and greedy.
Reply:Sounds like the old Soviet Union