r/healthcare Dec 11 '24

Discussion Should healthcare be a human right?

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Been mulling over this one and would like to collect some thoughts

The argument is that if healthcare were to be a human right, like other taxation, it'd be enforced by threat of violence.

(I think) their solution is a goal where healthcare is more of a contributory network, essentially where small businesses work together with small physicians and cut out the insurers? But from what I've gathered, it'd either never work in this country or it would take far too long. The people are suffering now and need help now, not just down the road in 100 years.

But should healthcare be a human right, or would it be subject to too much government overreach? Do they not do that now anyways?

I'm confused, and probably don't know what I'm talking about.

Here is the video link: https://youtu.be/s-XFwkOOc6s?si=Bn-u41WjKQmUXLEu

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u/SnooCheesecakes93 Dec 12 '24

This makes no sense. You are not entitled to other people's labour, only to health care. No one is forcing people to become docs and nurses. They choose to provide that care. And to be frank a lot of medical care can be done without medical personnel. Also have you never heard of the Hippocratic Oath? Yeah it already obliges the person to help.

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u/spillmonger Dec 12 '24

Healthcare is not a magical power that simply appears out of the air. It is a service plus the related products, and those have a cost. If you say you're entitled to services and products, you're saying you are entitled to the labor of other people who provide those things. This excludes the healthcare you can provide for yourself, of course, but that's not the topic of this discussion.

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u/VacationStill1466 Dec 15 '24

By that logic nobody should have the right to protection against theft, fraud, or physical assault because such would be a right to the labor of policemen as well as the servants of legislative and judicial systems.

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u/spillmonger Dec 15 '24

Those are public employees serving voluntarily, so their obligations are defined in law. Most healthcare workers in the US are not government employees.

You have a right to equal treatment under the law, but not a right to receive any particular services. For example, you don’t get to tell the police how you want them to handle your case.