Healthcare For All? - part four

The debate rages over whether or not healthcare is a human right and, in the United States, we’ve ended up with a patchwork of private providers and public assistance.  It seems no one is happy.  For those of us with coverage from an employer it’s still difficult.  My family faced open enrollment this month and it took hours, and a spreadsheet, to choose between options.  I gave up, poured a bourbon, and sat staring out the window at an early snow while my wife struggled on until we could make a choice.  But we’re still unsure what it’s all going to cost.

Healthcare As A Human Right: The Case Against

Healthcare For All, Part Three

The Bill of Rights establishes rights that are not to be restricted by government.   Freedoms of speech and assembly, the rights to bear arms and to due process, and prohibitions on the government from occupying or seizing most private property are all enumerated.  Doctrines of human rights also set out to guarantee liberties from government oppression.  What these long-cherished freedoms have in common is that they each limit government action.

Healthcare As A Human Right: The Case For

Healthcare For All - part two:

Healthcare in the United States is viewed as a service, offered by private, for profit providers and, for the most part, paid for by individuals who purchase insurance, largely through their employers, from for profit insurance companies.  For the vast majority of citizens this method has worked very well and has provided excellent care.  However, the cost of care, and insurance, has skyrocketed, far outpacing the rate of inflation and leaving a growing group of citizens without the means to pay for medical care, or even without access to care.  Unpaid medical bills are the number one cause of personal bankruptcy.

Healthcare For All?

On political issues I lean libertarian, but healthcare, especially for those unable to obtain it in the market, has always been the chink in my armor.  I see healthcare as a right equal to free speech and private property, and I can’t understand how a society that protects other basic rights so jealously would let so many in need suffer with conditions easily treatable for those able to secure insurance.  If the human rights argument is not strong enough, then perhaps the cost saving to society of avoiding expensive bad results by providing inexpensive basic care could be enough to persuade more conservative critics of health care for all.