Is healthcare a right?

Please answer yes or no, and then feel free to elaborate.

We have the right to take care of our health in any way that we feel is appropriate.

We do NOT have the right to demand or expect that other people pay for or take care of our health.

it's a service that has to be paid for. It's in the interest of society to give basic healthcare, but anything beyond that needs to be paid for.

YTH

out?

Aren't you getting any current news where you are?

Not a right in the amendments -- it's a requirement of government covered in 'to provide for the general welfare'.

And you know it.

Good question. As rights evolve from a consensus of the people in this country, healthcare, like Free Lunch and stealing from the grandkids, is probably seen as a right. No biggie, as deficits don't matter...

Neither is pubic education or libraries.

Nor are police and or emergency services.

it's a responsibility. Rights and Responsibilities go hand in hand in a Democracy.

Obviously how anyone answers the question will depend on their view of what "Rights" actually mean.

Healthcare is not a right any more than eating food is a right.

The point is that without it - at some adequate level - your other rights are so diminished that as to become meaningless.

Certainly not. Is it a commodity that only the wealthy can afford? That is certainly how it is shaping up. The thing about healthcare is that it doesn't follow the standard rules of supply and demand. You'll give your last dollar to live another day. In addition, an unhealthy society is a threat to the healthy wealthy as pandemic and disease know no class boundries. Couple this with massive breeding caused by disparities in healthcare and education throughout the world and you face even more dire consequences. The breeding grounds of world terrorism lie in world poverty and oppression.

Thumper2:

out?

Aren't you getting any current news where you are?

Not a right in the amendments -- it's a requirement of government covered in 'to provide for the general welfare'.

And you know it.

No, you have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Should you need to visit the doctor its your responsibility to pay for it and member of your family. Don't burden me with your idiotic lifestyle.

jackg

YES. In a country of our wealth and knowhow, one shouldn't expect to be bankrupted by an unplanned and unexpected illness or injury. I've seen dozens of ambitious and hardworking families destroyed by a catastrophic medical nightmare that ruins their credit and strips them of their dignity. We don't need to nationalize healthcare but we could certainly nationalize health INSURANCE so some bean-counting cocksucker doesn't determine who lives or dies and who gets bankrupted by denying legitimate claims. The insurance companies make plenty on car, homeowners, and liability policies...they'll survive losing health insurance premiums quite nicely.

No. Period.

StanH:

No. Period.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. I read somewhere that those things were important.

between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution before you set out to argue from either.

The Declaration was a statement justifying the USA for separating from England -- because they were denied basic human rights.

The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and it's what makes demands of the government and protects specific rights.

As I answered, healthcare is not a right as spelled out in the amendments known as the Bill of Rights.

However, it is a provisionsl requirement of government in the very first article of the Constitution to "... provide for the general welfare..." of its citizens. There is nothing more compelling a part of the general welfare of the country than public healthcare. No one is safe if 40-50 million people are walking around, waiting until there is an acute condition or life or death crisis to seek help. One in eight or so people you come in contact with every day could be carrying infectious disease from which the most expensive insurance the world could not save you -- because that one person does not have access to vaccination or basic care.

Your general welfare is at risk -- time for the government to provide for it.

That you quoted the Declaration of Independence and not any law which frames government.

The DoI is poetic and full of truth, but it is not the law.