A “right” is something to which a person is entitled to just because they exist
It is nothing they can earn. It is not provided by whatever form of government under which they live. It applies to all people equally, no matter their color, religion, sex, age, economic status, or a number of extremities. It is nothing that can lawfully be taken away. It is something that cannot be denied to them. Is Health Care a Right?
If healthcare is a “right”, then the government cannot limit one’s access to it. Just like the government cannot limit their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. How else can this be done then by trampling on the “rights” of the physician? How else can the government tell people they have the right to health care without saying to their physician, “You have no right to your own mind, to your own thoughts, to your own actions”?
“I deserve health care. I want health care, and I want it for free. It is my right. And I want it now,” is what people are saying.
The only way you can have universal health care is for the government to provide it. However, the only way a governmental system can regulate health care is to enact limits on access. This leads to the rationing of services. If health care is my “right”, then the government can NOT limit my access to health care. Just like they can not infringe on my right to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness.
With the right to life, no one is required to feed them, clothe them, and provide them shelter. The right to the pursuit of happiness is not a guarantee that anybody else will make you happy or even try to. Nothing is imposed on anybody but yourself. But the right to health care, by definition, must impose a duty on other people to satisfy your own needs; they have no choice in the matter. Their right to anything at another’s expense makes that other person rightless.
Their “right” to health care makes the physician a slave to the desires of others.
Guest post, authored by John White, MD
Continue Reading; Doctor Diaries: Is Health Care a Right?.
