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Is healthcare a right?

Is access to healthcare a right?

  • Yes healthcare is a right

    Votes: 37 44.6%
  • No healthcare is not a right

    Votes: 46 55.4%

  • Total voters
    83
  • Poll closed .
I am a doctor. Explain how you can possibly have a 'right' to my services.
As long as you get paid for services rendered, what's it to you who pays?
 
The ones who can't afford to buy are not the wealthy. May be your response was poorly worded?

I still don't see what your comments have to do with what I said?
 
As long as you get paid for services rendered, what's it to you who pays?
You taking money from others to pay me for my services has not established a 'right.' Plus you are acknowledging that my services require payment. You are confusing rights with privileges and state granted entitlements.
 
Is it a right in this country?

Apparently not.

Should it be? Yes.

It is a national embarrassment that there are deadly delays in care because a person lacks an ability to pay for services.

Sure....an ER cannot turn you away. But go into an ER with a significant lump in your breast and see how quickly you get that situation fast tracked.

The very poor have Medicaid. They can get service. The working poor....too rich for Medicaid too poor for insurance are screwed.

Interestingly enough....those "working poor" folks......are the "pulling yourself up by your boot straps folks. We are telling them they are better off not working.....they can get faster care.:roll:
 
You taking money from others to pay me for my services has not established a 'right.' Plus you are acknowledging that my services require payment. You are confusing rights with privileges and state granted entitlements.

How many private payer patients does any doc have? How many pool their resources through insurances? I think your argument fails inasmuch as healthy do pay for the sick.
Right to healthcare is not a privilege unless you think that healthcare is merely a cash transaction. If so, healthcare providers missed their calling.
 
Since you believe that the government must provide health care, or at least some minimum level of it, do you believe that government must force someone to be a healthcare provided if no one elects to assume that role as a their job?

No one would have to be forced. The job could still pay a premium, and make it worthwhile for those who do it. They will still be making quite a bit of money - and probably more - because people who couldn't afford to go to the doctor now can, and it will be subsidized by the government.
 
Are the NSF, and NIH government agencies or private institutions that receive government funding? As private institutions, they can waste their money however they wish. Now whether or not they should receive government funding or not is a whole different argument. Additionally, if the "wasteful" (a subjective value) spending does not exceed their budget minus the government contribution, then they are not wasting the taxpayer's money.

It doesn't matter if they are private or government agencies. The fact remains that they are given a ridiculous amount of money (by our government) for nonsensical studies.

Do we really need to spend millions of dollars to study fish on a treadmill? Hamsters in a cage match? $22 million dollars to try to incentive people to join the cheese industry? How many people could have been helped by that money? How many people are hungry, or homeless, while we spend $3 million dollars to find out that the music from Jaws scares people?
 
How many private payer patients does any doc have? How many pool their resources through insurances? I think your argument fails inasmuch as healthy do pay for the sick.
Right to healthcare is not a privilege unless you think that healthcare is merely a cash transaction. If so, healthcare providers missed their calling.

Healthcare is a service just as legal representation is a service; just mail delivery is a service; just as lawn care is a service, just as a million other things are services provided by individuals. And you have a 'right' to none of them.
 
Is it a right in this country?

Apparently not.

Should it be? Yes.

It is a national embarrassment that there are deadly delays in care because a person lacks an ability to pay for services.

Sure....an ER cannot turn you away. But go into an ER with a significant lump in your breast and see how quickly you get that situation fast tracked.

The very poor have Medicaid. They can get service. The working poor....too rich for Medicaid too poor for insurance are screwed.

Interestingly enough....those "working poor" folks......are the "pulling yourself up by your boot straps folks. We are telling them they are better off not working.....they can get faster care.:roll:

How about you become a doctor and give your services away for free. That way you, at least, would not be viewed as a 'national embarrassment.'
 
How about you become a doctor and give your services away for free. That way you, at least, would not be viewed as a 'national embarrassment.'

Did I ask you to give away your services for free?
 
I am a doctor. Explain how you can possibly have a 'right' to my services.

The same way I can have a right to anything else. The government recognizes it as a right and takes steps to insure that right is protected.
 
This debate in pointless. When healthcare is a for profit industry, governed by for profit insurance companies and the doctors and clinicians are supplied by for profit pharmaceutical companies who all have paid lobbyists to get the government to do their bidding, what result is expected? This issue is not the only one that 'we the people' can debate and argue until we breathe our last breath. You pick the issue: defense, education, banking and anything that the government gets into is ruled by those that pay to get their business before the legislators. Back to healthcare, if the rampant fraud was seriously addressed and the penalties fit the crime the level of fraud could be minimized. Money talks and BS walks.......... We won't change anything until we change how we do business, I'm not going to hold my breath, not happening in my lifetime! Rant out!
 
Healthcare is a service just as legal representation is a service; just mail delivery is a service; just as lawn care is a service, just as a million other things are services provided by individuals. And you have a 'right' to none of them.

Isn't there a provision in the Constitution re: legal representation?

Sixth Amendment?
 
This debate in pointless. When healthcare is a for profit industry, governed by for profit insurance companies and the doctors and clinicians are supplied by for profit pharmaceutical companies who all have paid lobbyists to get the government to do their bidding, what result is expected? This issue is not the only one that 'we the people' can debate and argue until we breathe our last breath. You pick the issue: defense, education, banking and anything that the government gets into is ruled by those that pay to get their business before the legislators. Back to healthcare, if the rampant fraud was seriously addressed and the penalties fit the crime the level of fraud could be minimized. Money talks and BS walks.......... We won't change anything until we change how we do business, I'm not going to hold my breath, not happening in my lifetime! Rant out!

I have always thought that our representitives that take money directly (or indirectly through PACs, Superpacs, unions,etc) should be forbidden to vote on issues relating to those subjects. Make all donations totally transparent. Conflict of intrest should be a major issue.
 
This debate in pointless. When healthcare is a for profit industry, governed by for profit insurance companies and the doctors and clinicians are supplied by for profit pharmaceutical companies who all have paid lobbyists to get the government to do their bidding, what result is expected? This issue is not the only one that 'we the people' can debate and argue until we breathe our last breath. You pick the issue: defense, education, banking and anything that the government gets into is ruled by those that pay to get their business before the legislators. Back to healthcare, if the rampant fraud was seriously addressed and the penalties fit the crime the level of fraud could be minimized. Money talks and BS walks.......... We won't change anything until we change how we do business, I'm not going to hold my breath, not happening in my lifetime! Rant out!

The problem isn't "how we do business". It's "how we do government".

The solution is for voters to elect people who WON'T do the bidding of big-money business interests.
 
This debate in pointless. When healthcare is a for profit industry, governed by for profit insurance companies and the doctors and clinicians are supplied by for profit pharmaceutical companies who all have paid lobbyists to get the government to do their bidding, what result is expected? This issue is not the only one that 'we the people' can debate and argue until we breathe our last breath. You pick the issue: defense, education, banking and anything that the government gets into is ruled by those that pay to get their business before the legislators. Back to healthcare, if the rampant fraud was seriously addressed and the penalties fit the crime the level of fraud could be minimized. Money talks and BS walks.......... We won't change anything until we change how we do business, I'm not going to hold my breath, not happening in my lifetime! Rant out!

OK, Skippy, why is it OK to sell food, clothing and shelter goods and services on a private for profit basis but not medical care goods and services? Those huge industries also lobby government for all sorts of perks (mainly tax breaks and protection from "unfair" competition) for themselves and subsidies to their very profitable customers - SNAP pays 100% retail (full profit) with no questions asked.
 
OK, Skippy, why is it OK to sell food, clothing and shelter goods and services on a private for profit basis but not medical care goods and services? Those huge industries also lobby government for all sorts of perks (mainly tax breaks and protection from "unfair" competition) for themselves and subsidies to their very profitable customers - SNAP pays 100% retail (full profit) with no questions asked.


As I posted: "You pick the issue." Money is everywhere, Skippy. There a many more.
 
No and no. Healthcare is a responsibility. You are responsible for taking care of yourself. Nobody is responsible for doing it for you.
 
Question 1: Is access to healthcare an individual right?

Question 2: If access to healthcare is an individual right, does the government have to must provide a reasonable level of healthcare to its citizens if a citizen can not afford healthcare?

I think that health care will move in the direction of becoming a right. I think that "good health" is a right. I think that a healthy environment is a right.

The biggest trouble with health care in my view is the cost, it's just unsustainable and that is why we're all fighting about it. Healthcare should be no more expensive that auto insurance: those insurance companies make plenty of money and as long as you're a good driver your rates stay low. So it should be with healthcare: your premiums should be based on to your previous claims for the last year. Newly insured should pay a minimum to get started and then go from there. Chronic conditions and preexisting conditions can be subsidized through medicaid.

Susan Collins was on Face the Nation this morning and I agree with her; the only way to control health care is to control the costs.

She's not going to sign the new bill btw, so that's three "nos" that the Republicans now have to deal with.
 
That is incorrect, you know.

I live in the UK and have never received a medical bill from the NHS. It's free at the point of use.
 
Question 1: Is access to healthcare an individual right?

No, not in american society, but being endlessly at war and militarily occuppying the planet is; we made that choice long ago and now there's too much profit in it to change course.
 
Anything someone else has to provide for you is not your right to have. I'd potentially argue the ability to access healthcare may be a right, but receiving healthcare is not.
 
No one would have to be forced. The job could still pay a premium, and make it worthwhile for those who do it. They will still be making quite a bit of money - and probably more - because people who couldn't afford to go to the doctor now can, and it will be subsidized by the government.

That didn't answer the question, but changed the premise. Please ATQ. If no one elects to be a medical provider, and health care is a right that government is required to supply, then how does the government do that?
 
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