One of the guys at QandO and Ezra Kline have been bantering back and forth about universal health care. The QandO guy, McQ said that "Rights don't involve, involuntarily, the assets of others." Ezra came back by calling libertarians "callous" and making the argument that universal health care is "a right because the citizens and government have decided it's a right".
That has really started to bug me. Just because governments have decided to provide it to everyone, doesn't make it a right. It just makes it a government provided service.
What about this situation? The emergency room has been flooded with patients from some big accident (we've all seen this on ER). They only have so many staff members. Some people are going to wait until someone can get to them. Some of those people will die. That sucks but have their rights been trampled on? Does the government need to make sure that there are always enough doctors and nurses at the hospital to handle a major crisis?
What about someone out in the middle of farm country who gets injured and dies on the long car ride to the hospital? Was the government responsible for that person's death because they didn't have enough emergency clinics scattered across the plains? Are city dwellers more equal than farmers?
The problem is one of limited resources. Until we have unlimited resources some people are going to needlessly suffer and die. It's really depressing but that is the way it is.
mwz
One final note: In a way though, health care by itself is a right. You have the right to seek any treatment that you can afford. In other words, I have the right to own a gun but that doesn't mean that the government must provide me with one.
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2 comments:
I think the same sort of issue came up with the "hanging chad" voters whose ballots were not counted. They WERE given the opportunity to have a go at the ballot, NOT the absolute guarantee of a vote. I see the difference - they didn't, I guess.
Great blog I hope we can work to build a better health care system as we are in a major crisis and health insurance is a major aspect to many.
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