Socialized Healthcare is a Severe Threat to Individual Liberty

The American Thinker ^ | June 27, 2009 | Andrew Foy and Brenton Stransky

[Scanian]

The doctrine of the safety net, to catch those who fall, has been made meaningless by the doctrine of fair shares for those of us who are quite able to stand. - The Economist The Declaration of Independence grants every individual the inalienable right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." According to the classic liberal definition, an "inalienable right" is something you have unless someone takes it away from you. It is easy to understand that if someone physically harms you or steals from you then they are infringing upon your rights. Therefore, to secure these rights the framers designed a government with the purpose of protecting people and their property.

Nowhere in our founding documents does the provision for government-funded healthcare appear -- mainly because one individual's health cannot be taken away by another. (In cases where it can be, individuals are entitled to remuneration through the law.) This piece will address the common liberal argument in support of socialized healthcare and explain why socialized healthcare represents a severe infringement on the individual rights our founding documents were established to protect.

What if someone argues, "There are some things in life that capitalism should not be allowed to structure for profit. Human life and quality of life are two such things. How can you look someone in the eye and tell them that their bank account dictates that they aren't worth helping?" This argument is severely flawed. One, it assumes that if you are against socialized healthcare then you are against the concept of a safety net; two, it ignores the fact that healthcare is already provided to those threatened by poverty and old age; and three, it fails to recognize that the amount of healthcare a person consumes

[Sacajaweau]

Big sign in our local emergency room....No one will be turned away...It’s called Medicaid and I’m paying for it. This is just gonna be another BIG tax....

[Vaduz]

Nowhere in our founding documents does the provision for government-funded healthcare appear.Those pesk documents keep Obama at night wondering How can I [CHANGE] them?.

[Dudoight]

Universal Health Care is legalized euthanasia.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

What am I NOT hearing?

Republicans standing up and saying, “The Democrats may create socialized medicine, but if the Republicans gain the majority, we will PRIVATIZE medicine right back. Not just return it to the way it was, but GET GOVERNMENT OUT OF HEALTH CARE ENTIRELY!”

Not a single Republican has said this. Why not?

There is absolutely NO, ZERO requirement that if Democrats change the law, it is set in stone forever. Yet the Republicans act that way.

So won’t a single, solitary Republican come out and declare that it doesn’t matter what the Democrats force through with their majority, if the people elect a big majority of Republicans, then socialized medicine is OVER AND DONE WITH, until they elect Democrats again.

[Dysart]

Barney Frank when- interviewed last wk by BOR- acknowledged that Health Care wasn’t a Constitutional right, and added that we pass laws all the time that aren’t consistent with Constitutional birthrights. This is a non-issue to him and the whole lot of ‘em, the whole Constitutional Republic thing that is.

[buckalfa]

“So won’t a single, solitary Republican come out and declare that it doesn’t matter what the Democrats force through with their majority, if the people elect a big majority of Republicans, then socialized medicine is OVER AND DONE WITH, until they elect Democrats again.”

Great thought, but the GOP gets their pockets lined by the insurance companies. Life is good under the status quo. The GOP has no incentive to totally privatize the health insurance industry. Any way the private insurance companies already ration healthcare through participating provider, medical necessity and pre-existing condition clause's and most outfits like Blue Cross reimburse providers no more than Medicare does.