Health Care is a Right, Says Obama.

By: Doctor A
Published On: 10/8/2008 1:29:32 PM


During yesterday's presidential debate, one of the clearest distinctions between Obama and McCain became obvious during the discussion on health care. When asked if health care is a right or a responsibility, McCain said "responsibility", but he did not describe who's responsibility. Obama, on the other hand, without hesitation said "right". Health care is a right. It needs to be a right, for very practical reasons. Right now, thousands of Americans use the emergency rooms as primary care clinics. For these and many others, cost-saving preventive health care does not exist. Instead, their health problems are controlled to a degree by expensive emergency room visits. But these visits don't fix the underlying health problems, they just douse out the fires temporarily.

If every American had insurance, however, preventive health care would replace the emergency room visits. That's key to Obama's health plan: prevention. With his plan, a significant portion of health coverage will be dedicated to prevention. Having a right to health care and a focus on prevention of illnesses  (the top three killers in the U.S can be largely prevented) will decrease the entire country's economic burden, as well as create healthier Americans. Healthier Americans means more productive Americans. More productive Americans mean a stronger economy.  

Comments



I'm going to be a bit contrarian (Ron1 - 10/8/2008 10:38:22 PM)
I actually don't think it's in our best interests as progressives to call health care a right. Our rights are our natural, inalienable, self-evident rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which are expanded by the 5th and 14th Amendments to include the rights to due process and equal protection (and therefore include rights to freedom of (or from) religion, freedom of the press and assembly and speech and petition, freedom to bear arms, and the right to privacy), and our jurisprudential rights to habeas corpus and against unreasonable search and seizure, and finally the right of the franchise. These are the bedrocks of all of our constitutional rights, and I don't think we should confuse constitutional rights with what the government has an affirmative obligation to provide to its citizenry.

Going back to the Preamble to the Constitution, "We, the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America," I would say that the government has an affirmative obligation, under the guise of promoting the general Welfare, of ensuring that all of its citizens receive health care.

I think the end result is the same -- the government of our country has not lived up to its own obligations and responsibilities for the general Welfare of the populace by maintaining our current, horrible health care system. But to me it's important to have this debate in the context of our constitutional strictures. I agree whole-heartedly with your second paragraph.