With all of the debate in this country about health care - initiated by the then Candidate Obama - there has been considerable discussion about health care being a right. It isn't, wasn't, and can't be.
The basic tenet of a right is that it has to be conveyed universally. It isn't something you qualify for, and it can't be legislated or regulated. Voting is not a right. Having a job is not a right. Health care is not a right.
In the health care arena, people can chose of their own free will whether to have insurance or whether to go to a doctor. Taken a step further, we can't assume that there will always be doctors or hospitals where we are. It can't possibly be a right.
The Declaration of Independence cites three unalienbale rights, given by God. The Constitution gives us several rights. In that the States, on behalf of the people, ratified them, in essence we gave ourselves those rights.
FDR tried to create a second bill of rights that included access to health care, a decent job, and some other stuff. He couldn't get it passed. Again, rights cannot be legislated.
A right is for all time and cannot be revoked, rescinded, or regulated except where one person's exercise of their rights interfere with the rights of someone else.
A lot of what we call "rights" in this country - includiong health care - are not that at all.
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