wow. do you actually believe it’s foolish for a society to distribute basic medical information and care to citizens for the benefit of their health? even if you succeed in your odd semantic quest to prove that healthcare is not a right by definition, human beings in societies have already agreed that it is beneficial to the whole to provide basic preventative care for each other. like providing clean water for each other, etc.. i find this article fairly pointless and delete-able, unlike your excellent arguments at –>
http://chrisberryonthe.net/2008/11/12/what-if-no-one-had-health-insurance/

Thanks for joining the conversation. I would be very curious to hear your take on these older posts as well.

http://chrisberryonthe.net/2008/09/08/revisiting-the-oregon-plan-the-future-of-healthcare-in-america/

http://chrisberryonthe.net/2008/11/12/what-if-no-one-had-health-insurance/

Patrix: On the topic of business/education: imagine a business where only 50% of the products manufactured pass final inspection: Roanoke City Schools.

If you will read my earlier post, I think you will find that I am in complete agreement with Leonard Peikoff on the issue of liberty.

http://chrisberryonthe.net/2008/03/25/healthcare-is-not-a-right/

I present the following: to say that healthcare is a right, and not a service provided to those in need, is to enslave the providers (doctor’s, nurses, etc.). In the case of government run healthcare, the service provider is a slave to the state.

The definition of liberty applied to this example would follow: “Nobody has the right to the services of any professional individual or group simply because he wants them and desperately needs them. The very fact that he needs these services so desperately is the proof that he had better respect the freedom, the integrity, and the rights of the people who provide them. ” from Leonard Peikoff Town Hall discussion titled Healthcare is not a right

http://www.bdt.com/pages/Peikoff.html

The bottom line is that the US has one of the worst healthcare systems of all the developed countries. Healthcare charities which were originally set up to work in 3rd word countries are now based in the US to help there because of the rapidly growing number of people in this country who have no access to proper healthcare and in some cases even FOOD.

Any country which speaks about the basuc human rights of it’s citizens yet has the kind of divide between rich and destitute that the US has right now is pretty screwed up.

At least Obama is trying to get something done about this and that is vital for the US, because no other country will continue to respect a country which cannot take care of its own people.

It’s shameful that we’re a world leader and we don’t take care of our own population as well as other industrialized countries do.

Reports of Canadians fleeing their “wonderful” healthcare system to be treated in the US…

British citizens so in need of dental care they resort to pulling their own teeth…

Citizens in need of BASIC preventative care, put on waiting lists months, if not YEARS long…

I’m glad we’re aspiring to something… wouldn’t want to one up our allies.

It’s shameful that we’re a world leader and we don’t take care of our own population as well as other industrialized countries do. It’s even more shameful that we’d all rather do nothing as the problem reaches a crisis stage.

Those of us who are currently insured pay for the cost of the uninsured going to emergency rooms when their health care issues that could have been addressed early reach a stage where they have to go to the hospital.

Isn’t it just more sensible to spend our tax dollars in the most prudent way possible? Seems to me, safeguarding the health of the citizenry by providing basic health coverage would be a wiser use of taxes than our “star wars” type defense industry that’s really a black hole into which millions of dollars disappear on a regular basis.

As James pointed out in the previous comment, there is a difference between a government service and a right. Government services are not guaranteed to us, and their availability varies widely depending on where you happen to live. Our friend Surfer Girl seems fixated on Police and Fire protection, but ask anyone living in a rural area if they believe they have a right to the services of a volunteer fire department. Anyone who has ever attempted to sue a police department for failure to protect them from crime has been told by the courts that we have no right to be protected from harm. Public education is just another government service. If there were a right to education, no child could ever be expelled from school.