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Is healthcare a right or a privilege?

Is healthcare a right?

  • Yes

    Votes: 36 60.0%

  • No

    Votes: 24 40.0%
  • Total voters
    60
Gaius46 said:
Half the country may not work because they choose not to. That doesn't make then unemployed. Nor does it mean they collect welfare. Lots of stay at home moms in my neighborhood. I doubt any of them collect welfare.
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And those people will not be paying into said system.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
Yes I think physical therapy is necessary health care, but at that point it is starting to get a little bit subjective.

Since you are a libertarian, are you against the idea of safety-nets like Medicaid?
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I am not against the concept. As a libertarian, I am for small government and maximum freedom. No a lack of government. I am a proponent for UBI as well. For that matter there are aspects of the ACA I like and want to stay. All that said, just because I support the concept of a given program, let's say food stamps/SNAP for example, I don't necessarily support how they are run, as execution might not run in line with intent.
 
Bucky said:
Is healthcare a right or a privilege.

I would assume if you believe healthcare is a right, than everyone should have access to healthcare, and for many, free healthcare. If healthcare is free, than who would be the ones paying for it?
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No, but it should be ... just like Death and Taxes ;)
 
Semi-related questions...

- Is being healthy a right?

- Is food a right?

- Is shelter a right?

- Is safety and security a right?

- Is anything a right? Literally.
 
Empirica said:
The EU nations have no where near the populations as the numbers here in the United States!

Regardless; their over-taxed people and overburdened economies are bleeding Euros mercilessly.

As the EU marches blindly into economic armageddon, government assures them every things fine.

Greece requires regular euro dollars from other Union members to stay afloat but will likely fold first.

Like dominoes Spain will probably follow Greece, but on a positive note the Brits wised up and bailed.

Canada might very possibly get out ok because they're more intuitive than Europeans and might possibly dump socialism before hitting their economy's event horizon.

Orientals are resilient so the Japanese will probably survive any catastrophe, natural or man-made. They'll crawl out of the ruins, dust themselves off and start over again with nothing.

The United States on the other hand is 20 trillion dollars in the red while government and MSM have lulled the masses into denial which has created a false sense of security. This of course is the absolute worst place to be when confronted with the mega-disaster bearing down on us like a runaway locomotive.

And it might very well lead to the end of life as we know it!
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All of which is utterly irrelevant to what I stated.

What else do you have?
 
It all depends on whether or not a given society decides it is a right. Rights only exist in this context. Rights are abstract concepts created by man for man.
 
It is most certainly not a right.

You've no right to the labor or goods of someone else.

We can make it an entitlement of being a US citizen. We would have to collectively agree to take on the obligation.

We already do in some respect.
 
Bucky said:
Many people in this country can't afford a premium payment.
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but they can afford drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, fast food, tattoos, body piercings, etc.
It is just another "entitlement". People want things from government without being willing to participate in paying for them.
 
It's a right in any society which claims to be civilised. The individual risk is minimised by including everyone in the pool, and funding it from taxation is the simplest most egalitarian method.
 
UtahBill said:
but they can afford drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, fast food, tattoos, body piercings, etc.
It is just another "entitlement". People want things from government without being willing to participate in paying for them.
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Benjamin Franklin: "When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic."
 
Manc Skipper said:
It's a right in any society which claims to be civilised. The individual risk is minimised by including everyone in the pool, and funding it from taxation is the simplest most egalitarian method.
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Oh look, more liberal virtue signalling bullcrap. "If you don't agree with me, you're scum!" :roll:
 
Cephus said:
Benjamin Franklin: "When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic."
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Hyperbole.
Not everything Franklin said was whispered into his ear by God.
 
Grand Mal said:
Hyperbole.
Not everything Franklin said was whispered into his ear by God.
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No such thing as God, but in this particular case, Franklin was absolutely right.
 
Bucky said:
Is healthcare a right or a privilege.

I would assume if you believe healthcare is a right, than everyone should have access to healthcare, and for many, free healthcare. If healthcare is free, than who would be the ones paying for it?
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I don't think it's necessarily a "right" per say, but also Universal Healthcare of some form shouldn't be shied away from. Ultimately we could pay less for and have greater access to healthcare if we use government in an intelligent manner to aggregate costs/risks over the entire populace.

Everyone pays, there's no such thing as a free lunch, it's just how much are we going to pay and how much are we going to get for our dollar.
 
Ikari said:
I don't think it's necessarily a "right" per say, but also Universal Healthcare of some form shouldn't be shied away from. Ultimately we could pay less for and have greater access to healthcare if we use government in an intelligent manner to aggregate costs/risks over the entire populace.

Everyone pays, there's no such thing as a free lunch, it's just how much are we going to pay and how much are we going to get for our dollar.
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Except everyone doesn't pay and nobody thinks for a second that everyone would in any UHC scenario. A huge percentage would pay nothing and have to be funded by the rest of us paying higher taxes. If everyone paid, I wouldn't say. Let us know when you figure out how to do that.
 
You don't have a right to someone else's labor. We have an amendment that bans that. Healthcare isn't like oxygen or life or torture. It's the debate of negative rights vs positive rights. Negative rights demand that someone not take away your right. Positive rights demand that someone provide you with your right. But if someone is forced to provide you with something, then something is being taken away from them, first and foremost choice. So no. Healthcare isn't a right because positive rights are inherently immoral.

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Insurance is a gamble. Definition of gamble: "an enterprise undertaken or attempted with a risk of loss and a chance of profit or success"

The enterprise undertaken is the premium paid. Risk of loss, financially speaking, is if you do not need the insurance, then you have lost your premium paid. Chance of financial profit is if you do need the insurance to cover a medical cost that is greater than the premium paid.

Just because you hope to not get the financial profit does not mean that it is not a gamble.

You will have a hard time convincing me that a gamble/insurance is a right. It is a privilege.
 
Manc Skipper said:
It's a right in any society which claims to be civilised. The individual risk is minimised by including everyone in the pool, and funding it from taxation is the simplest most egalitarian method.
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Not everything that the government provides needs to be considered a right. The government can provide a privilege simply because we are civilized. I challenge your argument that the term "Right" be applied to healthcare, simply because you think there are good reasons for the government to provide it. Healthcare is a privilege. The OP's question was not asking whether or not it should be provided.
 
fredmertzz said:
Insurance is a gamble. Definition of gamble: "an enterprise undertaken or attempted with a risk of loss and a chance of profit or success"

The enterprise undertaken is the premium paid. Risk of loss, financially speaking, is if you do not need the insurance, then you have lost your premium paid. Chance of financial profit is if you do need the insurance to cover a medical cost that is greater than the premium paid.

Just because you hope to not get the financial profit does not mean that it is not a gamble.

You will have a hard time convincing me that a gamble/insurance is a right. It is a privilege.
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Especially when you are required, by law, to engage in said gamble. A right is not something you are forced to engage in, it is something that you simply have.
 
Cephus said:
Except everyone doesn't pay and nobody thinks for a second that everyone would in any UHC scenario. A huge percentage would pay nothing and have to be funded by the rest of us paying higher taxes. If everyone paid, I wouldn't say. Let us know when you figure out how to do that.
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A pure flat tax wouldn't cure that completely, but it would go a long way.

Will never happen, though.
 
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