Is Health Care a Right or a Privilege? Part 2 - Con
The notion of a right to health care is silly. The health care worker's labor is his/her own. What possible claim could be made to that person's valuable work that would not also apply to the barber, the farmer, or the auto mechanic? Should those people's work efforts also be a "right?" Just because you need something does not create a duty for it to be given to you. We have a market system that guides the exchange of property or services.
Cost issues and pricing problems stem from too much, not too little, government interference in the market. Prices are artificially inflated by the flood of government and third-party payments as people do not care what the bill is when they are not paying it.
We would all acknowledge that food is more important than health care as we would die pretty quickly without food. So do we have a "right" to food in America? What about shelter? Do we have a "right" to housing? If so, we must look carefully at the number of hungry and homeless in this country.
Should the government give us everything? Is that what the Founding Fathers intended? Food? Shelter? Medical care? When we have the "right" to be given things we previously had to work for, there is no reason...none...to work for them. The goody bag has no bottom...
Our country was founded on principles of personal freedom. If you are not allowed to spend the money you worked hard to earn on what you wish, are you really free?