The Right to Health Care is equivalent to Freedom of Speech meaning that others are required to read you bedtime stories.

- NonE

As of now, the government mandates how bedtime stories are told, which results in needlessly expensive fees for them and only a few options for the types of stories. Not to mention some of the more established storytellers can bribe the government to pass regulations favoring their storytelling style.

The government is moving to make it so that people don't pay directly for stories. But these stories don't write themselves. Someone will pay. I'm pretty sure that more money than necessary will be allocated to storytelling, since the government isn't always that efficient with their stories. And I fear that people who don't need stories will jam up the system and deprive people who need them of their stories.

One thing that has always confused me is that the right to health care always seems to be cashed out as the right to money with which to obtain health care at prices that doctors will accept. It's sort of weird to me that we would talk about a right to something where the person who has it is not obligated to simply give it to you, but rather some third party (or parties) are obligated to buy it for you. I think it makes much more sense to talk about a collective duty to ensure that people with treatable conditions receive the care they need even if they can't afford to pay. Whether or not we agree that there is such a duty, at least it makes conceptual sense.

I've been watching the actions of our US Govt and the responses of the people with a sinking heart for some time now. The percentage of people willing to embrace a socialist solution is way beyond my expectations. And much of it is based on this health-care-is-a-right business.

You would think the socialists would try to win their case by showing horror stories of people being turned away from hospitals instead of receiving the life-giving care they need simply because they can't pay for it.

Why aren't they showing those stories? Unfortunately for them, there aren't any horror stories because it is illegal for hospitals to do that and most wouldn't anyway. Health care has been a right, by law, for some time now.

Danny's right, though. What is being called the "right to health care" is actually the "right to affordable insurance" on the part of citizens. On the administration side, I simply think it's a naked power grab. There are any number of brilliant and elegant capitalist solutions available, if responsible people were really trying to fix things.