From Marko:
In order for something to be a human right, it cannot and must not be something that requires a good or a service from someone else. If you make it so, then the person providing that good or service will become a slave to the community, because they no longer have the option to refuse. That’s why health care cannot ever be a human right: because health care is a commodity, just like flat-screen TVs and sliced bread at the grocery store. You can’t claim the right to force J.J. Nissen to make bread for you, whether it’s for compensation or for free, and you can’t force Best Buy to keep stocking flat-screen TVs, either. If you run out of people to provide that commodity, you have no way to claim that so-called human right.
A human right only requires that people leave you alone to exercise it, not that they work for you, whether you give them money for their work or not. Freedom of speech is a human right. Freedom of association is a human right. Free exercise of religion is a human right. Free band-aids and vaccinations aren’t.
Whether it’s health care or broadband Internet access, the government cannot bestow human rights composed of goodie bags.
if I could sell you my heart opperation if I dont want to use it, then it would be a commodity. but, you cannot trade and resell healthcare. so, it is a bit different than a commodity like groceries.
your slice of bread is a good example of a commodity. walk into a grocery store in a poor area, and a loaf of bread will cost less than a loaf of bread in a higher cost of living area. This is because grocery stores want to hit all markets and blend their margins while gaining market share. The rich subsidize because they can pay the cost for convenience.
It's a commodity in the same sense as any service. Akin to housekeeping, automobile repair, and computer programming.
Your slice of bread analogy is a little flawed because you're dealing with different brands and whatnot. Are you sure about the absolute prices, though? In my experience, it's more expensive to buy things in convenience stores in urban areas–where your full service groceries are not available–than in suburban areas.
back in my college days, we did a study comparing the same brand across the same grocery store chains and the study concluded that prices are cheaper in poorer areas. so the same loaf of bread, carton of milk, or dozen of eggs were more expensive in richer areas. so, we were testing "apples to apples" with the main difference was the cost of living of the area.
convenience stores are a bit different since they have smaller amount of stock and are just that "convient." so, you pay for that convience.
on services, I agree to a point, but healthcare is somewhat different in that most people use insurance for everything. With auto repair, you generally use insurance for severe cases (crashes, etc). but maintenance is paid out of pocket.
if we could get health insurance out of preventative maintenance and only use it for emergency reasons (opperations, etc.) and somehow magically get the cost of preventative maintenace to a point where it was affordable, maybe we wouldnt be in the mess.
Also, if we werent spending so much on wars, millitary bases, etc. maybe we could afford it as well.
Amen, Brian. If healthcare was a right, we'd have to force people into medical school, and then force them to treat other people, and we'd have to dictate how much money they make, and as President Reagan pointed out, we'd even tell them where they have to live so that everybody in the country would have access to doctors. This is freedom?? I agree that we can improve our healthcare system, but calling healthcare a human right is ignorant and selfish.
"My right to swing my arm ends at your face."