"No 'Constitutional Right' to Health Care"

To the Editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

"Rep. John Conyers is right. There's no more reason to link health insurance to
employment than there would be to link car or home-owner's insurance, and the
consequences are only bad. ( "At Jefferson, Conyers backs Obama health stand")

http://tinyurl.com/d4ktoo

The individual's choice of insurance plans is thus limited to those few options
offered by his employer, and he is frequently forced to stay at a job for fear
of losing his insurance.

Far better would be to revise the tax code to give the employee and the
self-employed the same tax break his or her employer currently enjoys, and thus,
more options to purchase, and out right own, his or her own plan- divorced from
a particular job.

However, Rep.Conyers is wrong when he says that an individual has a
constitutional or moral "right" to health care services.

A "right" refers to an individual's freedom of action – to produce or trade for
the needs, wants and values his or her life requires.

It is not an automatic entitlement to a good or service produced by other
people, whether it is a luxury item like a yacht, or a basic need like food or
shelter.

An individual has the "right" to work to earn his or her food and shelter- not
to take his neighbor's dinner or home without his permission. Doing so only
violates his neighbor's right to his own life and property.

Likewise, an individual has a "right" to medical services that he or she
purchases, is given voluntarily, or that others have entered into a legal
contract to provide or buy for him.

There is no "right", however, to force one's neighbor to pay for one's
appendectomy or tummy tuck. Nor do individuals have a "right" to force their
doctor – either with a gun, or through the power of government- to give such
services to them for free, bargain basement cost, or on any terms that are not
mutually and voluntarily agreed upon.

You can "do it" - but not without violating the rights of doctors."

Pennsylvania Supporter of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine (FIRM)

http://www.WeStandFirm.org

On Facebook:

http://tinyurl.com/c479fj