Health Care is NOT a Right

Written By: Jake Towne  |  Posted: Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

In the Bill of Rights of the Soviet Union, they were honest about health care - it states that "citizens of the USSR have the right to health protection." This document also stipulated Soviet citizens have the "right to work" not longer than 41 hours in a workweek, the "right to rest and leisure, " the "right to education, " the "right to enjoy cultural benefits." To find out how well this worked out for the Soviets, try reading Dr. Yuri Maltsev's article "What Soviet Medicine Teaches Us." (http://mises.org/ daily/3650). Even today, Russia's life expectancy for males is just 59 years, while in the US it is 73 years.
Besides lowering life expectancies under their totalitarian regime, the Soviet Union had it all wrong of course. Health care is not a right. You have a right to breath because air is abundant on our plan¬et - there is no scar¬city of it. Although your life is extremely scarce - there is only one of you - you do have a right to your life - to suggest otherwise is slavery.
You have a right to your property - to suggest otherwise is theft.
You have a right to freedom of expression and to believe what you wish - to suggest otherwise is tyranny.
However, people must pay for things like health care or food. Does a starving man have a right to enter a super¬market and eat whatever he wants? Health care providers have bills to pay and families to support, just as you do. If there is a "right" to health care, then you must have the ability to force health care providers to serve you.
Therefore health care is a privilege. Health care is a good and a service that everyone pays for.
All the current health care bill does is use the government as an intermediary to exert force directly on health care providers (and employers) to serve you. The current bill is a TAX and government interventions in labor
In the Bill of Rights of the Soviet Union, they were honest about health care - it states that "citizens of the USSR have the right to health protection." This document also stipulated Soviet citizens have the "right to work" not longer than 41 hours in a workweek, the "right to rest and leisure, " the "right to education, " the "right to enjoy cultural benefits." To find out how well this worked out for the Soviets, try reading Dr. Yuri Maltsev's article "What Soviet Medicine Teaches Us." (http://mises.org/ daily/3650). Even today, Russia's life expectancy for males is just 59 years, while in the US it is 73 years.
Besides lowering life expectancies under their totalitarian regime, the Soviet Union had it all wrong of course. Health care is not a right. You have a right to breath because air is abundant on our plan¬et - there is no scar¬city of it. Although your life is extremely scarce - there is only one of you - you do have a right to your life - to suggest otherwise is slavery.
You have a right to your property - to suggest otherwise is theft.
You have a right to freedom of expression and to believe what you wish - to suggest otherwise is tyranny.
However, people must pay for things like health care or food. Does a starving man have a right to enter a super¬market and eat whatever he wants? Health care providers have bills to pay and families to support, just as you do. If there is a "right" to health care, then you must have the ability to force health care providers to serve you.
Therefore health care is a privilege. Health care is a good and a service that everyone pays for.
All the current health care bill does is use the government as an intermediary to exert force directly on health care providers (and employers) to serve you. The current bill is a TAX and government interventions in labor.