Do People Have a Right to Healthcare

Discussion in 'The Thunderdome' started by Tenacious D, Mar 14, 2017.

  1. Tenacious D

    Tenacious D The law is of supreme importance, or no importance

    Isn't this necessarily the first and most important question in the healthcare debate?

    If the answer is "Yes" - then we merely need to decide how best to ensure for it.

    If the answer is "No" - then we need to settle very narrow matters about how to care for the indigent and emergent care, if even at all, and quit all of these overarching measures.

    If it it is a right, what makes it so? What kind of right is it? Civil right?

    I honestly don't know if we do, or do not have a right to healthcare. I'm open to either side.

    But before we agree to move onto the "how", perhaps the question of "why" takes precedence, and deserves some consideration.
     
  2. The Dooz

    The Dooz Super Moderator

    Do you think people have a right to life?

    I think that's generally a good place to start, when choosing which direction to go.
     
  3. kptvol

    kptvol Super Moderator

    That's kind of like using starvation to justify a right to caviar.
     
  4. NorrisAlan

    NorrisAlan Founder of the Mike Honcho Fan Club

    Caviar is a luxery. What in medicine is caviar.
     
  5. ben4vols

    ben4vols Contributor

    Of course there isn't a right to healthcare. That being said, our government has operated as if it was for so long that you can't morally go from one to the other in one bill signing. Slowly phase out the gov'ts intrusion into the healthcare market.
     
  6. A-Smith

    A-Smith Chieftain

    kpt's mad skillz
     
  7. JohnnyQuickkick

    JohnnyQuickkick Calcio correspondent

    Don't have a right to someone else's time/expertise/product. In my opinion. Except in the case of legal representation, which is specifically enumerated, and is about protecting citizens from government.

    If healthcare is a right, based on this "right to life" idea, what about food and water? I haven't been to the doctor in 15 years. I wouldn't make it 15 days without food & water.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2017
  8. NYY

    NYY Super Moderator

    No.
     
  9. kptvol

    kptvol Super Moderator

    If the definition of luxury is something more than what is needed to preserve life, most of it. Which, I would think would be relevant if the argument is that people have a right to life and thus products and services that preserve life.

    Also, he didn't say medicine, he said healthcare.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2017
  10. zehr27

    zehr27 8th's VIP

    So what is your answer? Do people have a right to Healthcare? Simple yes or no.
     
  11. TangoUniform

    TangoUniform Contributor

    i sure as **** shouldn't have to pay for YOUR ****ing healthcare, so I say the answer is no.
     
  12. bigpapavol

    bigpapavol Chieftain

    Absolutely. Implied right to someone else's talent / stuff is absolutely idiotic. Right to someone else research in creating medicine is equally so.
     
  13. bigpapavol

    bigpapavol Chieftain

    right to access, not to the funding.
     
  14. kptvol

    kptvol Super Moderator

    Even access seems tricky. We going to force a bunch of doctors to relocate to Montana so they have the same access as a New Yorker?
     
  15. bigpapavol

    bigpapavol Chieftain

    Not at all. Access doesn't mean easy or affordable.

    The part that gets lost in this "right", for those who espouse it, is the implied affordable. Funny that those who fight hardest for more govt and free crap won't hammer the insurance companies right now while they can. Monopoly power has absolutely destroyed healthcare.
     
  16. The Dooz

    The Dooz Super Moderator

    There isn't a simple answer. I can understand where those that say no are coming from, and where those that say yes are coming. Fortunately for me, I don't get paid to come up with a solution, because there isn't one that will make everybody happy.
     
  17. RockyHill

    RockyHill Loves Auburn more than Tennessee.

    There absolutely is a simple answer. There really isn't any gray here. I understand why this can be a very emotional topic or elicit strong responses, but it's not complicated.
     
  18. The Dooz

    The Dooz Super Moderator

    No, it's definitely not simple. If it was, there wouldn't be pages and pages of debate on it here or anywhere or anywhere else.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2017
  19. gcbvol

    gcbvol Fabulous Moderator

    I believe everyone should have access to legal and affordable euthanasia. If we're ultimately talking about access to life and death services where quality of life is largely irrelevant, then legal euthanasia should be an available avenue.
     
  20. cotton

    cotton Stand-up Philosopher

    A "right," in my understanding, is about sovereignty. You have sovereignty over your ability to speak, or assemble; to your personal space and property; to your personal liberty; to your ability to freely participate in choosing governmental representatives. You also have a right to a fair, specific process if any infringement on that sovereignty is going to take place. The idea is that this sovereignty is inherent in human existence, and where it does not exist it is because someone, usually a government, has violated it, usually through force. That is why our government, from its creation, is restricted from doing just that.

    Nowhere in my understanding does "right" include requiring services (or goods) from another. It does not require that people pay taxes to provide these services, that individuals or organizations provide services, that anyone, anywhere, can show up and demand them, or that government is violating the inherent sovereignty in human existence by not providing them. Laws (created by freely chosen representatives,) can require these things, and they may even be the fair and best things to do, but that does not make them "rights." They are privileges or benefits or social services or something else, but they aren't rights, and this would include "affordable health insurance."

    So there's mylong-winded way to agree with JQK.
     

Share This Page