Poverty Is Not an Accident

Poverty Is Not an Accident
Nelson Mandela

Saturday, March 05, 2011

health care is not a human right

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In U.S., Health Care Never Was an Entitlement


"They say what others cannot do to you, rather than what you are entitled to. Your "inalienable...right to Life" is not a right to live."

You people keep whining that this country was founded on "Christian" principles? Then find the justification for this!

"The majority would never enslave a minority — viz., providers — in order to provide the majority with any "right," such as a personal service called health care."

True, the wealthy minority enslaves the majority. It is we, the workers, who are most in jeopardy of our health, working to make you wealthy. You don't even want to be responsible for injuries on the job, so of course, you see no responsibility for our contributions to your wealth and have no humility. And those of us who are too young, old or disabled to work? We should just die?

"Health-care-as-a-right lets the individual off the hook and makes us all pay for the consequences of an irresponsible patient's unhealthy lifestyle choices."

How do you decide most people can't have health care because a few people either have no education in self-care, have such low self-esteem they don't have the will or just don't know what to do, since WE are not DOCTORS??

Does an "unhealthy lifestyle choice" include the fact that I live on $3/per day food stamps and have to buy what's cheap and filling, not what's organic, low in fat, salt and sugar? Your corporations manufacture and sell this crap to us, instead of food, and you blame us, because it's what we can afford? Your corporations sell us tobacco, alcohol and prescription medications that are killing us, too. And, yes, sometimes, we self medicate to the point of addiction. Our lives are very hard, full of trauma; we have no healthy outlets and nobody is teaching us healthier ways to live.

"The Founding Fathers also understood that the free market — not a federal government — drives the economy and provides the greatest good for the greatest number. They understood — unlike modern politicians — that the "invisible hand" of the market works best unfettered and unrestrained by the "heavy hand" of oppressive government, burdensome bureaucratic regulations, onerous taxes and union extortion. If health care becomes a right, the latter is what we will get."

There IS no "free market" in this country! small businesses die on the vine as corporate big boxes invade and destroy local economies. The "invisible hand" has left all fifty states bankrupt, thrown the country into HUGE debt and raked in BILLIONS in corporate welfare, privatization of public sector, military contracts, all paid by taxpayers! It's socialism for the WEALTHY!

If we let you do what ever you want, we won't have water to drink, workplace safety, businesses who pay their fair share back to the community or any protections for workers!

If health care becomes a right, we will have healthy, not desperate, people! Folks are losing their HOMES to pay hospital bills! PEOPLE ARE DYING OF NEGLECT!

Sir, I don't know if you're a physician, but what happened to, "First, do no harm?"

I suppose the next push will be to charge us for urinating, defecating, breathing?

Thanks for trying to blame US for your greed and heartlessness. You are a bitter, selfish, immoral person and an embarrassment to my country.


In U.S., Health Care Never Was an Entitlement

By Dr. John R. Vigil
Medical Director, Doctor-On-Call Urgent Care
And Dr. Deane Waldman
Author of "Uproot U.S. Healthcare"
          A New Mexico constitutional amendment is under consideration to recognize health care as a basic human right.
        In the Feb. 25 Journal, retired public health doctor Bruce Trigg passionately supported its passage. With respect to our well-meaning colleague, this amendment is bad for patients as well as our nation.
        This country was founded on principles rooted in individual freedom — from control by a monarch, by a government or by the group with the loudest voice. "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" as well as the Bill of Rights describe negative rights. They say what others cannot do to you, rather than what you are entitled to. Your "inalienable...right to Life" is not a right to live. It is a prohibition against an individual or the government killing you.
        Our Founding Fathers, five of whom were physicians, did not accidentally "forget" about health care. The society they created was based on personal freedom and individual responsibility. The majority would never enslave a minority — viz., providers — in order to provide the majority with any "right," such as a personal service called health care....
        Compelling one group to provide for the needs or wants of another is antithetical to U.S. core principles. The Founding Fathers clearly cast the first 10 amendments — the Bill of Rights — as constraints on group (government) control of the individual. There are no American rights that should be entitlements.
        Dr. Trigg asks "why can't we guarantee that everyone has medical care on the same basis that we provide police and fire protection and universal free education"? The analogy with health care does not work.
        Firstly, they are not "free" nor are they entitlements. The government provides these services solely to protect our persons and our private property. Further, they are based on and presume some reasonable level of personal responsibility.
        If you pull the fire alarm without a fire, you will pay for the fire department response. If you ignore forestry guidelines when hiking and require a rescue, you will receive a hefty bill. We all know how expensive property taxes are, the ones that pay for "free education."
        So we must ask Dr. Trigg and other supporters of the amendment: Does "health care as a basic human right" require any degree of personal responsibility? If not, government and its agent — the provider — become responsible. Health-care-as-a-right lets the individual off the hook and makes us all pay for the consequences of an irresponsible patient's unhealthy lifestyle choices.
        When the government is responsible rather than the individual, the government is in control. Do the supporters of the proposed state amendment believe the signers of the Declaration of Independence were just kidding in their opposition of tyranny?
        The Founding Fathers also understood that the free market — not a federal government — drives the economy and provides the greatest good for the greatest number. They understood — unlike modern politicians — that the "invisible hand" of the market works best unfettered and unrestrained by the "heavy hand" of oppressive government, burdensome bureaucratic regulations, onerous taxes and union extortion. If health care becomes a right, the latter is what we will get.
        What does health-care-as-a-right produce? Answer: a sickly American population that requires health care without limit, and a grossly inefficient, obscenely bloated and expanding federal bureaucracy.
        Resisting health-care-as-a-right does not make the physician-authors unfeeling monsters. It is precisely because we care deeply that we oppose loudly touted, ill-conceived legislation that harms our patients and our nation. Like us, the Founding Fathers would certainly oppose this un-American amendment that takes us from the age of enlightenment to an age of entitlement.




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