A RIGHT TO HEALTHCARE

There was a letter in the Washington Missourian from someone that made the claim that we have a right to healthcare. Below is my response to this. I have had a long term debate going on in my head (along with all of the other voices) about this topic. If anyone reads this please respond and tell me where I'm wrong. Thanks.

To the editor:

On 7/14/2009 Susan Cunningham wrote a letter to the editor proclaiming our right to healthcare and extolling the virtues of a government run and financed healthcare system.

The question I have regarding her letter is this; can you possibly tell me where we ever had a "right" to healthcare that presupposes public dollars being used to support it? I know it is possible to argue that a right to healthcare exists in the natural law (though I disagree with this argument), just as a right to self defense does. However, I've never heard anyone try to make an argument that society owes me the means to my own defense. Maybe the government should buy me a gun.

So let’s say just for the sake of argument that you do have a right to healthcare. Does that right entitle you to the best available healthcare or just enough to get by? Even the poorest can get enough to get by already, without government taking more of my property and freedom. If you think that you are entitled to the best healthcare on the public dime then I want the government to buy me the biggest nuclear missile made so that I can exercise my right to self defense.

I think that common sense would dictate that, in most instances, my right to self defense could be exercised by a baseball bat bought (at my expense) at the five and dime. Your right to healthcare can be exercised by paying for minimal health insurance yourself or just paying the doctor as you go. Both healthcare and self defense are life and death decisions that we are personally responsible for. Oh, did I mention that with rights come responsibilities?

Truth cannot negate truth. In other words, if it is true that I have an exclusive right to my property it cannot also be true that you have a right to it. My labor is my property. It is central to my being. Your claim of a right to healthcare presupposes that someone will provide that care. You have no right to the labor provided by a doctor or anyone else without just compensation. No individual is entitled to the services or the fruits of another's labor without just compensation. A right is something that we are free to have or do, without permission, something we posses free of all encumbrances. If our actions infringe on the rights of another (such as taking their property) we are not exercising our rights, we are imposing our will.

But, you say, the doctor will be compensated by the government. Where does the government get its money? From the fruits of the labor of its citizens. Does the federal government have the ability to take property from its citizens for public use? Only as allowed by those citizens and for the purposes clearly defined in the constitution. Healthcare is not one of them.

The “right” to health care is a canard foisted upon the public in hopes of ramming an unsustainable socialist medical system down our throats. This is part of a larger drive to destroy the free enterprise system that has made the U.S. the most prosperous country in the history of the world. The American people will not accept a socialist system if it is presented honestly so its backers will lie, cheat and distort the truth to hide its true nature from the public. This assertion of a right to health care is merely part of this charade.