Is health care a privilege, a right, or a responsibility?

[metapunditedgy]

McCain:
I think it’s a responsibility, in this respect, in that we should have available and affordable health care to every American citizen, to every family member. … But government mandates I — I’m always a little nervous about. But it is certainly my responsibility.


Obama:
I think it should be a right for every American. … for my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they’re saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don’t have to pay her treatment, there’s something fundamentally wrong about that.

[nightrain]

1. a responsibility of a humane society, and a responsibility of

a person to do what they can to take care of themselves as best as possible. Easier done when there's actual health CARE available, affordable. And when poverty, and other factors don't confound one's health status and access to CARE.

[Lil Missy]

2. a human right

[anonymous171]

3. A right that needs to be secured by society. nt

[Ozymanithrax]

4. It is not an enumerated right under our constitution...

I consider it a responsibility to provide health care to my family.

Certainly, I would like to see it be made a right.

[Sebastian Doyle]

5. Candidate Obama got it right.

He was also right when he told Hillary that using corporate mandates to "solve" the problem of millions of people being uninsured was as logical as solving homelessness by requiring everyone to buy a house.

So what happened to that guy? He would have been a great President. :evilfrown:

[metapunditedgy]

8. Yeah, I voted for him. I guess candidate Obama lives on in my hopes and dreams. :-) n/t

[inna]

10. He was also in favor of a new tax on millionaires to pay for the reform.

And he claimed that he won't sign a bill without a public plan. :shrug:

What happened to that guy, indeed? :evilfrown:

[tango-tee]

12. inna, there's a look-alike in the WH.

The original has vanished. :mad:

[TexasObserver]

6. It should be a right, but it's a privilege in our country.

In the civilized world, however, it is a right.

[salguine]

7. That Obama could cite this example of HIS OWN MOTHER and then, not so very long after

speaking those words, acquiesce so readily to this grotesque travesty of "health care reform" makes him look, in my eyes, like a contemptible, craven piece of shit.

[Ellen Forradalom]

9. All of the above

We have a responsibility to furnish it, to contribute financially to it, to manage it carefully, and to care for our own health.

We have a right to health care when we need it.

And we should be so privileged as to live in a society that views health care this way.

[laughingliberal]

13. Ooooh! Good post! nt

[Jim Sagle]

11. It's a political football.

[laughingliberal]

14. LOL! Football = Public Option. nt

[metapunditedgy]

15. That is funny. Has that meme made it into any political cartoons? n/t

[Igel]

16. A right.

Just like the right to free speech, right to a free press, right to carry a firearm, right to free expression of religion.

I don't expect the government to provide me with a megaphone or microphone, with a press, with a firearm, with a church.

I have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But I don't think the government provides me with a life, provides me with liberty, or furnishes me a pursuit that will ensure my happiness.

Yes, there is something fundamentally wrong with having your mother arguing with her insurance companies during the final years of her life. However, the choices are not restricted to that and the one you offer.

I'd go with "responsibility," but haven't thought it through in order to decide exactly how to implement that responsibility or its extent. Then there's another problem: Even if I have a responsibility I could still fail at it. Often what is expected is infallibility. (Note that even if health care is deemed a right there will still be failures because the doctor, the nurses, the patient, and the bureaucrat processing the paperwork and enforcing regulations are also people with responsibilities that they might well fail at.)

[Uncle Joe]

17. The Constitution implies it should be a right in two sections.

The Preamble with the phrase of "promoting the general welfare"

Section 8 Article 1 (Powers of Congress)

The Congress shall have power:

1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.

Per Webster's Dictionary.

"general", 1. The whole; the total; that which comprehends all or the chief part; opposed to particular.

"welfare", 1. The state of being or doing well; the condition of health, prosperity and happiness.

I view private for profit "health" insurance corporations as a particular and when Congress forces the American People to subsidize such an institution, they're not living up to their oath.

I believe Medicare for everyone from the cradle to the grave is most in tune with the Constitution.

Even though this isn't specifically enumerated in the Bill of Rights the IX Amendment combined with the phraseology from the Declaration of Independence, of unalienable Rights, Life, Lliberty and the pursuit of Happiness should give grounds for it seriously being considered a right.

If your health is poor, all of these are diminished and with the United States being ranked 37th in the world re:health care of it's citizens, we have serious progress to make.

[G_j]

18. sounds like a lot of words

from a couple of politicians,