McCain says a responsibility
Obama says a right
I know we have had threads about this topic before, but calling health care a right just kind of freaks me out. Am I alone on this? Why does Obama saying it is a "right" just get glossed over? Is it accepted as truth now?
I feel that McCain's answer (even if he did not elaborate in the following way) is more accurate in that the government has a responsibility to facilitate an environment that allows for healthcare to be available in the most cost effective yet excellent in standard of care possible. And the federal government has to help in this much like we have an interstate system, national defense, etc. It is in our country's best interest to have a good healthcare infrastructure. But a right? As in human right? My gosh.
Healthcare is a human need, not a right, as I see it.
What is healthcare? Is it not the providing of a service of care towards the health of a person? Why is it that something that is provided by someone else, costs money, and services our basic needs, now considered a right? Liberty, breathing air, loving others, the pursuit of one's own happiness, your life....those are things that we have our own right to. But the need for healthcare?
What about the basic needs of food, shelter, or even transportation? Are we this close to saying that everyone has a right to a home, three meals a day, clothes, and a vehicle of some kind? Just like healthcare, these are basic human needs requiring service or material at a cost. So we have a right to the need for healthcare, but not these other things?
My point is these are all good things and needed at a basic human level. But to consider them to be rights is just plain wrong. These things cost money and/or are services/materials provided to others. They are not free of charge or free in source.
Maybe saying healthcare is a right speaks to the modern voter in this country, but to me is a scary statement, and just feeds the mentality that the government is there to be voted for to take care of us. Is this the Democratic platform, or one man's opinion? Like I said, the government has an obligation or responsibility to facilitate access to these needs (not rights), healthcare being one of them, for the betterment of our country as a whole. But when Obama answered healthcare is a "right" all I could do is shake my head. Anyone saying it makes me shake my head.
If I am missing something here please help me out.