Is healthcare a commodity or a right?

[BigMikeG94]

My belief is that when you make healthcare a right you get less innovation and progress. Competition creates quality and efficiency.

[TrueForester]

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/878652

[IronRooster2]

If there's money to be made, capitalists will choose to make it. Even if they're not able to price gouge us ten times more anyone else pays for insulin.

To not take the money, would be giving it away to some other capitalist to pocket. That's not how you win Monopoly. That's not even how you win Connect Four.

[dhawkeye1980]

HealthCARE is a right, health INSURANCE is not.

[KyleAaron]

My belief is that when you make healthcare a right you get less innovation and progress. Competition creates quality and efficiency.

Free speech is a right, and we have a LOT of innovation and progress in that. These forums and other social media and blogs and so on didn't exist a generation ago.

[Qong]

Your health is your personal responsibility.

The fact is that the vast majority of money spent on healthcare in our country goes towards diseases that people bring on themselves. Fat people. Smokers. Heavy drinkers. Drug users. People who don't exercise. All of those things and more play a major role in a person's health. All of those things are choices that a person makes as a free individual.

Taxpayers should not be responsible for the poor choices of others.

[Dave22reborn]

Why not demand universal dental care, car insurance, daycare, maternity leave, etc?

[Ephedra]

Your health is your personal responsibility.

The fact is that the vast majority of money spent on healthcare in our country goes towards diseases that people bring on themselves. Fat people. Smokers. Heavy drinkers. Drug users. People who don't exercise. All of those things and more play a major role in a person's health. All of those things are choices that a person makes as a free individual.

Taxpayers should not be responsible for the poor choices of others.

This!

[tk217]

Doctors have an Oath so - it is a built in social right - not a constitutional one.

Insurance is not a right. That is a pooling of resources by intelligent people who understand Risk and actuarial tables to provide for themselves, friends, families, coworkers, etc - to insure a good outcome in the case of injury.

[linkherooftime]

Commodity

[RougeProdigy]

It's both

[BigMikeG94]

Exactly thats why x-rays are so expensive. Lasik eye surgery went from $20k an eye to $5k an eye. why wouldn't the same dynamics work for healthcare?

[veggie530]

It isn't a right. You don't have a right to my skillset.

It's odd that no one wants the govt to buy them guns for the 2nd amendment or microphones for the 1st...they don't want to be compensated to vote...but healthcare is something they want the govt to provide to them as a "right" for free

[dakensta]

The fact is that the vast majority of money spent on healthcare in our country goes towards diseases that people bring on themselves.

And another fact is that the vast majority of those ill people pay taxes.
Don't act like fat people, smokers, heavy drinkers and drug users are all unemployed and on welfare. Your average fat guy works 9-5. Your average 40 a day smoker pays his taxes, hell with the tax on cigarettes, he pays more tax than non-smokers. Cigarettes are expensive!
Don't act like alcoholics and druggies all fund their habit with welfare and ill-gotten-gains. Some do. Some healthy people commit crimes every day and pay no taxes, ever. The fact is that the majority of the taxes that are used to fund healthcare are paid by people who will need healthcare at some point. Public healthcare isn't supposed to be just for unlucky individuals who live entirely blameless lives and get sick because... God wills it? What?
The public pay taxes. The public get sick and need healthcare. What's wrong with using the taxes they pay to provide healthcare? What would you prefer it was spent on?
Sure, some people will pay taxes all their life and never get sick. Lucky them. And some people will be sick all their lives and never pay taxes. Even luckier, am I right?

[AlwaysFocus]

in my country I think it should be a right shared among the population that's equally paying a small fee like we do.



But the stupid fukking ******* immigrants are raping the system and even some ameri brahs take advantage of it.


Fukkin pisses me off I'm in the upper tax bracket and I get to comp you thieves.

[Danielwik]

Socialism -> I am alive and breathing give me free ****. Translation --> forcefully take stuff from other people aka stealing.

Fear big corporations! But the government don't fear them.

Venezuela takes over a GM plant.

Wait I thought the corporations were the scary tyrants?

[randombrah102]

It isn't a right. You don't have a right to my skillset.

It's odd that no one wants the govt to buy them guns for the 2nd amendment or microphones for the 1st...they don't want to be compensated to vote...but healthcare is something they want the govt to provide to them as a "right" for free

But you have a right to a police officers skill set?

Why are no republicans trying to privatize the police?

[RedPolo]

Commodity. No one has an obligation to take of you for free.

[randombrah102]

Commodity. No one has an obligation to take of you for free.

You got the same views when it comes to police right?

[RedPolo]

You got the same views when it comes to police right?

We pay for that through taxes so no...

I don't have a problem with people who don't pay into the system having access to police. But an officer responding to a call doesn't cost as much as trying to take of a poor person that treats their body like chit (a lot of them do) so it's a stupid comparison anyway.

[jmonty]

Taxpayers should not be responsible for the poor choices of others.

what if it's cheaper and better for everyone?

what if removing profits for private insurance companies and creating a single payer system was actually better in every way?

[A-GAME]

Commodity

[jmonty]

[PlanoLifter]

It isn't a right. You don't have a right to my skillset.

It's odd that no one wants the govt to buy them guns for the 2nd amendment or microphones for the 1st...they don't want to be compensated to vote...but healthcare is something they want the govt to provide to them as a "right" for free

I would have thought a health care person such as yourself would have been smart enough to know that universal health care, such as the care in Canada, Australia, the UK, is not free. It's true that their health care is not usually paid for at point of delivery, but it's not free. Your hyperbole and false equivalencies makes it seem like you have the arguments of a 13 year old.

Even if we went to universal health care here you as a medical person would still get paid and nobody would "have a right" to your skillset for free.

[PlanoLifter]

My belief is that when you make healthcare a right you get less innovation and progress. Competition creates quality and efficiency.

Given the continuing rising costs of healthcare and, subsequently, health insurance it seems that the efficiency of the private market and competition in healthcare simply does not materialize.

[PlanoLifter]

We pay for that through taxes so no...

I don't have a problem with people who don't pay into the system having access to police. But an officer responding to a call doesn't cost as much as trying to take of a poor person that treats their body like chit (a lot of them do) so it's a stupid comparison anyway.

So then, by your own argument, if universal health care could get costs down you'd have no problem with taxpayers paying for the hypothetical dude in your argument, right?

And it's not really a stupid comparison. It's just a matter of where to draw a line in the sand. For some people it's okay for taxes to pay for infrastructure and community services that they may never use and that other users may not ever pay to use. Which is no different than using taxes to pay for health care.

[wesleysh21]

And another fact is that the vast majority of those ill people pay taxes.
Don't act like fat people, smokers, heavy drinkers and drug users are all unemployed and on welfare. Your average fat guy works 9-5. Your average 40 a day smoker pays his taxes, hell with the tax on cigarettes, he pays more tax than non-smokers. Cigarettes are expensive!
Don't act like alcoholics and druggies all fund their habit with welfare and ill-gotten-gains. Some do. Some healthy people commit crimes every day and pay no taxes, ever. The fact is that the majority of the taxes that are used to fund healthcare are paid by people who will need healthcare at some point. Public healthcare isn't supposed to be just for unlucky individuals who live entirely blameless lives and get sick because... God wills it? What?
The public pay taxes. The public get sick and need healthcare. What's wrong with using the taxes they pay to provide healthcare? What would you prefer it was spent on?
Sure, some people will pay taxes all their life and never get sick. Lucky them. And some people will be sick all their lives and never pay taxes. Even luckier, am I right?

Vast majority? 47% of Americans pay no federal income tax. Paying in and then getting the money back as a "refund" doesn't mean you paid taxes.

[chaunce54]

Just because something is a right, doesn't mean the taxpayer is required to provide it or provide funding for it. A hospital will never turn away a paying customer, therefore nobody is denied a right to healthcare in this country.

[BFast55]

If you think rights are the gov'ts to give, then healthcare (or anything for that matter) could be interpreted as a right. You also might be a liberal.

[TIREDNOTDEAD]

It isn't a right. You don't have a right to my skillset.

It's odd that no one wants the govt to buy them guns for the 2nd amendment or microphones for the 1st...they don't want to be compensated to vote...but healthcare is something they want the govt to provide to them as a "right" for free

Came in to post this...... leaving satisfied. Repped.