Health Care As A Privilege: What The GOP Won't Admit

New York Magazine:

As we wait for a Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act this week, there is one urgent, overriding moral question at the heart of the health-care fight. Paradoxically, and maddeningly, there has not been any open moral debate over it. That question is whether access to basic medical care ought to be considered a right or something that is earned.

Read the whole story at New York Magazine

Comments

[cbrown1389]

12:32 AM on 06/27/2012

I am a Hospice Aid, I make just above minimum wage. I have been paying for my own insurance, no group, for the last 12 years, my premium goes up and up. I am almost to where I will not be able to afford it if it goes any higher. I have a $7500 deductible and owe $4000 right now for some skin cancer surgery I had. I am helping people die with grace and dignity...but my own life...well........this just doesn't seem right..

[MRlass]

10:13 PM on 06/26/2012

As opposed to spending billions or trillions for our war machine to cause death and destruction on other people, I will take health care for all here in our country any day.

[JRNO]

10:10 PM on 06/26/2012

If your right to life is violated the violator will be thrown in jail.

If your right to liberty is violated the violator will be thrown in jail.

If your right to property is violated the violator will be thrown in jail.

If your "right" to healthcare is violated who do we throw in jail?
Is it the doctor who prefers to have his own clients?
Is it the doctor at the hospital who is already overloaded with patients?
Is it the taxpayer who simply cannot afford to pay more taxes?

Rights are unalienable. That means that they cannot be sold or transferred.
There can be no "right" to healthcare without violating the unalienable rights of the persons who would be compelled to provide it.

Healthcare is not a right.

[KeepLivin49]

11:15 PM on 06/26/2012

You are a complete idiot

[JRNO]

12:33 AM on 06/27/2012

Let's assume that I am the King of all Idiots...

Rights cannot be rights if they violate the rights of others.
Rights do no require the positive actions of others to be honored.

What is your disagreement?

[cbrown1389]

12:35 AM on 06/27/2012

so.... just let them die on the streets.....don't trip...the heartless.....gutless....excuses for humans in here sometimes....and by the way....Corporations are not persons! ( I'm assuming you must believe they are)

[JRNO]

01:37 AM on 06/27/2012

You have such a miserable dim view of your fellow citizens, billions and billions of dollars have been raised by private citizens to fund hospitals for the poor and indigent and for medical research. There is nothing to prevent you or anyone else from joining together(in a corporation:)) to help others.
Privately contributed dollars to competing charities will put pressure on each charity to see that they are run as efficiently as they can be or lose contributions. In government institutions there is no incentive to do better, on the contrary, failure can be use to demand more money from taxpayers.
Getting government out of the business of healthcare and giving people and providers the freedom to make and choose their own healthcare plans will yield the best results and free up money that may be used for charity.
 
 

[merle]

09:33 PM on 06/26/2012

The few republicans who have made comments about this article have shown the rest of us that they only know how to parrot the GOP media talking points.

These people truly believe we must starve out the poor and put many in the middle class into poverty because that is the only way out of the high deficits we find ourselves with after the bad years of Bush/Cheney...who they probably voted for.

Republican citizens must climb out of the "low information" holes they have placed themselves in by only listening to fox, rush, glen and their ilk. They have to stop believing that everything these terrible liars say is factual when most of it is lies and distortions.

Republican citizens must learn to fact check, google and not believe a thing until they have double checked. I am sure they would like to do the right thing, but they will never be able to until they truly understand what is really going on and how the truth is going by the way side because of all the big $$$ from the super rich Koch Bros, Karl Roves and the like.

No one except the super rich and big corporations will be happy with the US becoming a third world country. That is where we are headed with these bad people.

[jchandjd]

07:18 PM on 06/26/2012

I am having some difficulties with the issues of fair cost displacement of healthcare. It would be wonderful if everyone could have access to healthcare as needed, but some people place themselves in a position to need more and more by failing to maintain themselves. Should these people have to pay more since they use up more of the resources? What about people who do not follow their physician's advice to lose weight or stop smoking? Should they pay additional money into the cost of the system? if not, it seems similar to giving everyone equal access to free gasoline at taxpayer's expense and those that ride a bike pay the same cost as someone who commutes hundreds of miles due to their "choice" of employment.Looking for some positive feedback on the issue.

[rontheking]

10:14 PM on 06/26/2012

If you are worried about people who abuse or kill themselves at an earlier age, then isn't it fair to assume that it balances out by not having to worry about supporting them all those extra years--were they to live a long time--through Social Security...? Just sayin'....

[KeepLivin49]

11:17 PM on 06/26/2012

If it was you or one of your loved ones would you ask so many dumb questions or would you just want them to receive the best care possible?

[jchandjd]

09:21 AM on 06/27/2012

I am not sure why you think it is dumb. I have a multi-million dollar emergency fund that I have built up over 35 years, so I will not need YOUR help. Do you have the same or did you squander your income? Maybe YOU are the one that is dumb.

[kokobell616]

06:55 PM on 06/26/2012

At any point the suggested solution involves single payer or medicare for all and the wheels fall off the profit train. The vast amounts of capital wasted on the hundreds of insurance companies administrative costs would I am sure dwarf the amount delivered to health care professionals for services rendered. So, in the long run what the majority of Americans are paying for is the administration of their own money at a sizable profit for the administrators. Am I the only one that thinks that a medicare for all would be just as efficient and substantially more frugal than paying for the hundreds, maybe thousands of different types of insurance companies administrators whose sole purpose is to operate at a profit. That includes death panels, limited care, denial of care, bill collecting etc...

Health care for all

Not insurance for all

That is the change that this country needs to propel itself into the future. Smart, efficient, workable and trustworthy. Anything less will leave America languishing in its own mire of foolhardy exceptionalism.

[averagezoe]

06:22 PM on 06/26/2012

I am bothered by the phrase that health care is a "privilege." Wealthy business owners may work for their money, but is it a privilege that athletes and entertainers earn millions and billions each year for doing next to nothing? Most politicians tout that the strength of a nation is its people, so why is it considered a privilege to keep these people healthy and productive? Of all the basic rights, the pursuit of happiness should also be construed as the right to medical care - after all, it would be difficult to enjoy life and liberty when incapacitated by a debilitating diesease.

[kokobell616]

07:00 PM on 06/26/2012

Well said

fanned

Faved for your mini

[ronald barnes]

06:11 PM on 06/26/2012

I'll never forget the freshman congressman Andy Harris from Maryland that ran on the Tea Party/Republican ticket who is also a doctor, and campaigned against the Affordable Health Care Act. He stated that if he was elected he would work to repeal it. After being elected and upon being sworn in Jan. 9th, he became visibly angry when he was told his new paid for my taxpayer healthcare insurance would not kick in until March 19th. Shows you how stupid people can be when blinded by bigotry, racism and lies, they will vote against their own interest.

[rontheking]

10:22 PM on 06/26/2012

Hypocrisy by any other name--GOTP--would smell so sweet!

[Joel Smithis]

05:49 PM on 06/26/2012

Exactly,

life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, individual liberties
or
general welfare of We The People,

All got muddled by conservatives in their pursuit of servitude to corporations!

Was "corporation" ever mentioned in The Constitution?

[ABandApart]

05:36 PM on 06/26/2012

After reading the ridiculous contortions in SCOTUS's decisions yesterday, I can only feel morbid curiosity about how SCOTUS will justify whatever political tract they publish on Thursday.

[ABandApart]

05:28 PM on 06/26/2012

Even if you agree with the Republican idea that healthcare is not a right, is there seriously anyone out there who thinks that *access* to healthcare isn't a right?
Because the ACA *doesn't* guarantee healthcare -- it only enables *access* to healthcare. Most people will still have to pay their own way in all this.

[cristoballs]

05:44 PM on 06/26/2012

i don't recall anyone preventing *access* to healthcare such that a 2000 page would be needed. in the event that someone was working to prevent access, a simple 1 page bill could rectify this. what are the other 1999 pages for?

[peggyanner]

05:59 PM on 06/26/2012

oh

[Joel Smithis]

06:00 PM on 06/26/2012

There is no such thing as 1 page health care bill.

And access to health care is indeed the problem for millions of Americans!

[KeepLivin49]

12:40 PM on 06/27/2012

It does not. I was unhappy with the law. It does not go all the way where I want it to go if the premise is that we all participate in health care and there ought to be a sensible way for us to provide for that.It is a guarantee that all who oppose it ..have health care.

[UncleBunny]

04:55 PM on 06/26/2012

This question was asked in the 2008 Presidential debates: Is access to healthcare a fundamental right or not? John McCain unashamedly stated the Republican position by saying access is not a human right, while Barack Obama stated clearly that it was.

To all that say there is no difference between the two major parties, I contend there most definitely is. Continued support of the GOP means more human beings will be denied access to health care, while support of the Democrats will, dare I say it, offer the hope of change for the better.

[Christopher Stahnke]

06:06 PM on 06/26/2012

The difference between the liberal and conservative POV is very simple. It is not a matter of Republicans being mean--though most (that I've known) are, it is a matter of not believing in systems theory. To be precise the right believes we are each independent agents and, as thatcher famously said "...there is no such thing as society." This view, using reason, science and logic ludicrously wrong. It is like saying that the sun revolves around the earth, in fact it is worse because it certainly appears that the sun moves around the earth but you have to be religiously narrow-minded to believe that when any idiot who has been in a crowd can tell that there is an entity there or watches the incredible rituals all cultures have that have no practical value other than celebrating unity of some kind among people. Why, indeed was there such a celebration when the U.S. beat Russia in the 1980 Olympics--we all felt better and unified as we did after 9/11 for a few weeks until evil people took that spirit and distorted into an collective ugly grimace that is frozen on our collective faces.

This right wing idea is just flat out idiocy that has the virtue of justifying our collective flight from virtue.

[rontheking]

10:37 PM on 06/26/2012

Interesting theory...f and f...enshrines selfishness as an overarching conservative trait...seems to make sense...and also dovetails nicely with their endemic a$$holishness...me likee....

[manface]

04:41 PM on 06/26/2012

It seems republicans are blind to the new workplace trend of keeping people at 35-38 hours a week to avoid having to give benefits.

[peggyanner]

05:40 PM on 06/26/2012

and we will rem

[peggyanner]

06:16 PM on 06/26/2012

damn it - full statement not going thru......we willl remember in Nov......

[nothingchanges]

04:26 PM on 06/26/2012

Personal opinion...........

From what I've seen of TODAY's Republican leadership. They should change the name to the American Cynic Party.

"What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
Oscar Wilde

Didn't used to be that way......................

[MamaJoe]

05:04 PM on 06/26/2012

F+F for the Oscar Wilde comment about the repubs and I love your bio.

[TVegas]

04:21 PM on 06/26/2012

Republican Dream...an insurance company that only collects premiums never pays a claim