Healthcare rights, healthcare programs

At the risk of wading into an already contentious debate over whether we have a right to healthcare, one point in Jake’s reply to the replies to his reply to Goldberg (phew!) that struck me was this:

One major concern is that when the federal government declares something a right (either explicitly or implicitly), it almost never goes away (i.e. Social Security, etc.)

Social Security struck me as an interesting, albeit incorrect example. Social Security isn’t properly a right. It’s a federal program. The conduct and administration of that federal program is limited by rights (that is, it can’t provide some people with preferential treatment on the basis of race, for example). Rights belong to people, and the government respects and protects them.

Jake’s point may stand. Once we implement a public option or some federally administered healthcare program, it may be hard to retreat, but not impossible.

In fact, this is just what’s at stake in the debate over whether healthcare is a right at all. If it’s not, then healthcare reform could eventually go the way of federal welfare in 1996. But if it is a right, then government provision or protection will need to stick around though thick and thin.

–Sam

Related posts:

  1. Healthcare and human rights cont.
  2. Healthcare, Rights, and Human Rights
  3. Let’s talk about rights, baby
  4. More on healthcare and choice
  5. The Millenials and healthcare reform

July 29, 2009 · Filed Under Rights, Sam

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