What’s wrong with the healthcare arguement
Sunday Sept 6, 2009
The Left’s Argument for Health care Reform
The Left’s argument that quality affordable health care is a basic human right has grown from a rumble to a cacophony and finally morphed into a raucous chant. And, the rebuttal from the Right has only been to propose ways to increase health care insurance competition without government involvement, and oppose socialized health care on the grounds that it would cause health care rationing, intolerable taxation rates, and budget deficits that could never be paid off. This in and of itself is not a rebuttal to the argument.
In order to understand the fallacies perpetuated by both sides in this argument, we must understand what a right is. There is no better way to accomplish this task than to re-visit our own Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We must, also, know and understand the difference between rights and privileges or legislated rights. But first, let’s look at what constitutes a right.
For the purpose of brevity and ease of explanation, I will only use the guarantees of the 1st amendment as examples of true rights. (This does not infer that I feel the other rights guaranteed in The Constitution of The United States are of lesser value.)
The 1st amendment starts out as follows: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” What qualifies the freedom of religion as a right is: it does not obligate anyone to participate in or believe in any form of religion you desire to practice. You have the right to establish a church; but, you do not have the right to have a built in congregation come with it. The wording of the amendment continues with: “…or abridging freedom of speech …” This part of the amendment guarantees the individual the right to speak in support of or voice decent against any person(s) or government, without fear of reprisal or censure. This is the backbone of a free society. This right is qualified by the fact that, you have a right to speak; but, you do not have a right to be listened to. (Politicians seem to not understand that concept.) In short, the individual’s right to speak does not obligate any other person. The amendment continues: “…or of the press…” Freedom of the press is another essential right necessary for a free society. A free press ensures that our society is informed about topics and events that impact our lives and exposes person(s) who would use their right to free speech to mislead and misinform. Again the qualifier to being a right is the fact that no one is obligated to read, listen to, or watch anything the press (news media) puts out. “…or the right of the people peaceably to assemble…” You do not have to join any group that intends to or has peaceably assembled. No obligation here either. And lastly, “…and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The Constitution was written to establish a government limited in powers and obligated to protect the citizens’ rights as defined within it. Therefore, the Government cannot be viewed in the same perspective as the citizens. However, since the action of petitioning the government obligates its officials, it cannot be considered a basic human right. It is a legislated right; but, it is valid to say that if you choose to petition the Government for a redress of grievances, you obligate no other citizen(s); since, anyone you ask to be a witness on your account, has the choice to participate or not.
The unique quality of basic human rights is that they are applicable whether you are, in a crowd or in the privacy of your own home. You certainly can exercise your freedom of speech even if you are isolated from others in the Frank Church Wilderness. The same standards apply to freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and in fact, the right to keep and bear arms.
Although you have a basic human right to seek health care, this same quality does not apply to receiving health care. Health care most definitely obligates someone to administer it and if you consider it a basic human right, then you necessarily believe in servitude, (slavery) in one form or another.
God forbid, you find yourself in a situation where you are isolated with no form of communication and are in dire need of medical treatment. But, if you do, ask yourself: Where is my right to health care now?
The fallacy that healthcare is a basic human right has been perpetuated for a reason. The politicians know, in order to make it a right of any kind, they have to amend the Constitution. And that’s a whole hell of a lot harder than just writting some 1,014 pages of convoluted gibberish, and passing it as law.
By: Backwards boB
