it's certainly not a right

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You can't have these if you're sick. Health care ~~should~~ be a right, but unfortunately it isn't. +5

Yep, I just double checked the constitution, & there is no right to health care (not that it matters anymore, we have rights clearly labeled that are denied, & others where no right exists, but have been created from air!)

It is neither. But, any responsible, respectable, and civilized society should be able to see the necessity and the BENEFITS of assuring their citizens live a long, healthy life free of preventable complications.

Well, Id have to say that in the society we live in...It SHOULD be a right! but everything's about a buck.

Right now, it is neither, but it should be a right. It is physically and emotionally impossible to be completely free or to consider life or liberty or even to pursue happiness without being healthy. It would be in everyone's self interest, especially the nation's, if health care were available to everyone who needed it. As it is, the only ones who actually benefit are the insurance companies who make billions by denying those in need and the doctors and pharmaceutical companies who treat only the symptoms, instead of curing the illness or disease.

Well if you are a Senator or a Reprisentitive it is a Right of course. The rest of us can go to hell in a handbasket....

i personally think it shoud be a right. every human being deserves the chance to fight an illness or injury and live, whether or not they have money to cover for a hospital stay or surgery. unfortunately, "should" doesn't mean anything to our government. they only care about themselves.

Well, I guess it's now also my right to demand payment from someone if they are crushed in a bad car wreck before I call 911. If the house is on fire and they're screaming from a window they better toss me a few hundred bucks because if I have no guarantee of health care then I make no guarantee I'll bother using my cell phone when someone is in dire straights. Fair enough?

Right, like it is evrywhere else in the world

Health care IS a personal service that you purchase from a doctor of your choice, same as you would buy the services of an accountant, attorney, barber, hair stylist, or plumber. My medical expenses are not your expenses, and likewise, yours should not be mine. When I hear the totally scary term “National Health Care” I’m unpleasantly reminded of many other government agencies such as: - U.S. Immigration Service – they manage visiting non-citizens. - Border Patrol – they enforce the laws on traffic across our borders. - Dept. of Justice – that has been highly successful at running most of our manufacturing job out of the country. - Federal Reserve Bank – that has created, regulated, supervised, and enforced the most astronomical banking crisis in our 223 year history. - Federal Housing Finance Agency – they invented the process of hiding all the HUD subprime mortgages in packages called MBS (Mortgage Backed Securities) to sell to unsuspecting investors. - Dept. of Housing & Urban Development – that is currently the most incompetent slum lord in every American city. And now that senile group of misfits we call “Congress” is talking about managing your health care,,,,, and paying all our medical bills,,,,, with new tax money extorted from us,,,,, if there’s anything left over after they pay the salaries of the huge Federal Health Care Administration which will be larger than the U.S. Postal Service…. You just have to remember that both houses of Congress and the Executive Branch are filled with people that are either professional politicians that have never held a job, or lawyers that could not make it in private practice and ran for political office.

It depends where you live. I suspect that where you live it is a privilege. Where I live it is a right based on the fact that a portion of the tax I have paid during my life has gone toward funding the National Health Service.

It's self obligaton . You need to take care your own health.

It's a right and the way of the future

Its not a right. Id like to Know how that ever became an issue. But it should be affordable, so everyone can be assured proper medical care. Regardless of their age.

It is NOT a right.

to give healthcare to all who need is a vow a dr. takes I believe...... we have a right to seek healthcare ,now whether we get it or not , is up to the healthcare providers, dr.s that is..... i believe it should be their priviledge to do all they can for the sick...poor or rich.....

It's not a right in the absolute sense. However, in a society where restrictions on who may and may not provide care are strictly imposed, it becomes a right by way of necessity. Restrictions necessarily disrupt the market's ability to provide services to the greatest number of people resources can allow. Prices increase, and therefore, the cost of such restrictions is borne mainly by those who've been priced out of the market. This is of course, the poorest members of society. Given the strong correlation between ill health and poverty, it now becomes a question of basic social justice. We all want Doctor's who've completed 12 years of college and make 300k a year so we can feel as if we're in the very best hands possible, but we know this attitude severely limits the number of people who can or will become physicians. The inequities which result have not occurred naturally, but are instead something that was willfully created though bureaucracy and regulation. Yet we're not about to go back to the days of snake oil salesman. So that's why health care has become a right rather than a privilege. Anything less is an injustice, and in our society, justice is an absolute right.

it should be an incentative to get off your @ss and get a job.

An entitlement. A basic human right. Whats so wrong about peace love and understanding anyway?

Definitions, you figure it out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privilege

No one should die because they cannot afford healthcare. No one should go broke because they get sick, and no one should be tied to a job because of pre-existing condition.

At present it's mostly a scam: http://www.moneydrivenmedicine.org/in-the-news/58-money-driven-medicine-producer-alex-gibney-healthcare-dons-on-the-dole

It should be considered a human right everywhere on this planet. That it is not tells you a lot about the state of mankind and how they have failed so miserably.

Health care is without any doubt a basic human right!

Hey Seeya, based on what you've wrote, NO veteran should expect or recieve ANY medical attention at anytime for any reason. After all it's a VOLUNTARY military, they CHOSE to enlist, what happens to them should'nt be paid for by anyone other than themselves, right?

IT'S A PRVILEDGE IN THE US DUE TO THE EXPENSE. IF AN EMPLOYER COVERS THEIR EMPLOYEES WITH INSURANCE IT IS A BLESSING.HEALTHCARE COST HAVE BEEN DRIVEN UP DUE TO INSURANCE COMPANIES PAYING THEIR CEO'S HUGE WAGES,AND BENEFITS.STAFF REQUIRING HIGH SALARIES DUE TO COST OF LIVING ETC.

Depends if you have it or need it.

I hope it remains a right. Just like out right to pursuit happiness, a true right does not obligate others to make me happy. I true right gives us the fredom to action, it does not force others to act. The right to bear arms does not obligate the government to supply us with weapons.