Why not pay for your own health care?

Question

Americans are obsessed with rights. We always have been.



But the concept of rights our forefathers laid out in the Declaration of Independence has changed dramatically. Those rights – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – were acknowledged to come from the Almighty, given equally to all people. Today’s rights come from Almighty Government.



Health care is the newest “right.” From presidential candidates’ universal plans to the return of HillaryCare to Michael Moore’s movie “Sicko,” it’s all over the media.



Calling it a “right” is an emotional argument advanced by those who want others to pay for their health care. They bring out the children and ask whether anyone can deny them the “basic human right” of health care – but don’t bother with the evidence showing how health care in this country would be harmed by government control.



A look at other modern “rights” might give us a clue about how well a new system would work. These rights started out as privileges, among them education and a paid retirement.



Now education is not only considered a right, it’s a mandate. How well has it worked? American students attend school at least until their teen years, but 15-year-olds ranked 24th out of 29 countries in aptitude for “real-life math problems,” according to The Washington Post. Literacy surveys suggest one in five American adults is functionally illiterate. And taxpayers keep shelling out money to fund the system.



Americans also cherish the right to retire – but we expect to be supported in our old age. Younger workers and employers are forced to support retirees, funding another right.



And how well has that worked? The poorly designed, outdated Social Security system is disintegrating rapidly as the number of retirees balloons. But once you’ve established a right, it’s difficult to take it away. The government, which promises such rights, must go to its sugar daddy – taxpayers – to keep the rights coming.



We’re already well on our way toward the health care right/mandate. Want to be more like Canada? It’s not that far off. Cato’s Michael Cannon has pointed out that third parties in America pay 86 cents of every dollar of our health care – about the same as Canada’s socialized system.



What we – or rather, those third parties – pay for health care is already determined by the government as well. Emory University medical professor Robert Swerlick has noted that “the pricing of medical care in this country is either directly or indirectly dictated by Medicare.” This market meddling even causes doctor shortages, he says, in needed areas of specialty.



Prescription drugs are already considered a right, thanks to political moves like the Medicare drug benefit and massive media support. A Business & Media Institute study found broadcast journalists treating prescription drugs as though they grew on trees. Overall, the coverage supported the idea that medications should magically be available to everyone at far lower costs.



Of course, the magic behind new “rights” is your money.



Cannon and fellow Cato expert Michael Tanner explained problems with tax-funded care in their book “Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It.” If health care is guaranteed to everyone, how much does everyone get? Who decides who receives what, and how would the care be administered? What happens if everyone wants the most expensive treatment available?



“With the wide variety of medical tests and treatments that consumers may claim as their right, someone at some point must decide where the right to health care ends, lest the nation be bankrupted,” they wrote.



We’re well on our way toward that as well. Our “rights” to Social Security and Medicare devour about 40 percent of the federal budget. State and local property tax revenue, which normally funds education, mushroomed about 35 percent between 2000 and 2005, according to the Tax Foundation. We can’t afford any more “rights” like that.



But the left says tax-funded care is right for the children. Meanwhile, what becomes of them? They’re growing up in an America where the “rights” mentality is deeply ingrained, and the media continue to feed them with it.



When the children come of age, perhaps they’ll want the right to a job. They won’t remember that France already tested that idea for us, and it led to high unemployment and rioting. Perhaps they’ll guarantee Disney vacations for all families and force childless Americans to pay for it. “The pursuit of” will conveniently fade away as they look to government to guarantee happiness.



They will know less and less of a true right – liberty – and have no idea where it comes from.

Answer 1

Health care isn't a right; it's an entitlement. Health care isn't this service that exists in a vacuum - it requires the hard work, dedication, and excellence of doctors, as well as technological and medical advances that are painstakingly researched by our most brilliant minds, not to mention all the funding that goes into research projects.

Rights are those things that stem from your self-ownership. You own yourself, therefore you have the right to liberty. You own yourself, and you have the right to liberty, so you own the product of your time and labor. How can health care be a right if health care depends on other people being able to provide that service to you? Are people saying that doctors owe them? Since we're "owed" health care because it is our right, why should we have to pay? I guess that as generous as we all are, we pay taxes and ask the government to compensate doctors, nurses and hospitals what we deem 'fair.'

The doctor owns his life, his liberty, and his labor. He should be able to set his own terms. You do not have the RIGHT to his services, no more than anyone else has the right to demand that you provide a service for whatever he or she is willing to pay you.

Answer 2

Twenty five years ago, I was a young punk just out of high school, was living in my first apartment,. One day i came down with the strep throat. Went to the Doctor's office across the street. The doctor got his money from me UP FRONT. There was no billing me. Only after I coughed up the fifty bucks (that's it....FIFTY BUCKS) was I lead into examination room. He did a throat culture on me, wrote me a prescription for pennicilin which I filled at the phamacy next door for $8.
Those days are gone. Why? because half the people that walk through the door never pay the man. The medical system is not allowed to bill you up front. The veternarian still can, and he is MUCH CHEAPER than the doctor for humans.

Answer 3

Why doesn't americans try paying tax for a change and take the money from that and provide equal health care to everybody no matter the size off their wallet? It sure works great for my country!

The chances are no US citizen at any given time can afford paying for their own health care.. If you are not yet made aware that the current health care situation in your country isn't worth a penny, you need to wake immediately!

Answer 4

You lost me right of the bat with Americans rights coming from the almighty . No such thing .

Anyhow no matter what you say health care should be left alone including the end to private insurance companies who seem to set the rates .

Get the private insurers and government off the back of health care providers period .

Answer 5

When it comes time that you are old and cannot afford 1500 dollar a month health care premiums please let us know that you are saying no thank you to any other health care system. After all you believe one must pay for his own health care.

If you have a catastrophic illness such as cancer. The cost could run into hundreds of thousands even a million dollars or more. I hope you have saved enough to pay for your care because you are not interested in anything else but taking care of yourself. Don't come crying to the government or to anyone else when that happens. Just die quietly with the satisfaction that you stood on your own two feet and took care of your own healthcare costs.

Answer 6

That's quite a diatribe, but you have fallen for a few fallacies.

The comparisons that show US students behind are usually comparing "selected" foreign students with run-of-the-mill US students - were they not at the top of their class, they would have gone to a trade school.

And the "Federal Budget" that "is being robbed" by Social Security is also a lie - the funds that Social Security brings in MORE THAN COVERS any benefits paid out to date - it is the general government spending that is robbing Social security.

Your nostalgia for the good old days of pestilent slums and epidemics is laughable. I wonder at your ability to put such a fountain of nonsense up in a public place.

Answer 7

such a long and winding argument that doesn't even touch the main focus of the point in the least... SO PATHETICALLY SAD...

the issue here is NO ONE PAYS FOR THEIR OWN HEALTHCARE ANYMORE...

HARDLY ONE PERSON...

it's called insurance, maybe you've heard of it... no one with insurance shops around... no one with insurance cares if the procedure is expensive...

insurance destroyed the checks and balances of capitalism in healthcare and the system is basically doomed now since it's too far gone to save...

no one could afford their own medial expenses if something happened... that's "why not"...

Answer 8

I do pay for my own health insurance. The point I think you missed in your long dissertation is that a civilized group of people, using the "noblesse oblige" philosophy means those who can take care of the less fortunate or poor, are obliged to do so by our creator. We owe the creator the altruistic responsibility because we are fortunate to have a.)a good paying job. 2.) a wealthy family or 3.) we won the lottery, etc.

Somehow one or more of the above mentioned makes our circumstance secure, Our security comes from God thru the talents he has given us. We owe God for them. taking care of poor people we are returning God's investment in us, to others.

Answer 9

While I do not support national healthcare, why is it that our insurance companies are posting record profits year after year? I think something needs to be done abut that, as every year they claim they must raise the price of healthcare on everyone when they are making money hand over fist.

Answer 10

I am paying for my own health care...
But we need to find a way to limit lawyers from inventing law suites against doctors and hospitals