Straight from the United Nations, the world's largest inter-governmental organization:
[quote]Calls upon Member States to ensure that health financing systems evolve
so as to avoid significant direct payments at the point of delivery and include a
method for prepayment of financial contributions for health care and services as
well as a mechanism to pool risks among the population in order to avoid
catastrophic health-care expenditure and impoverishment of individuals as a result
of seeking the care needed[/quote]
[quote]Urges Governments, civil society organizations and international
organizations to promote the inclusion of universal health coverage as an important
element in the international development agenda [/quote]
So in plain English, the United Nations a few years back, officially endorsed the concept of universal healthcare as a human right, regardless of where you live, who you are, what your financial status is etc. It is also important to remember that the United States is the last country of the 35 currently industrialized, modern nations, to not have some form of single-payer or universal healthcare https://truecostblog.com/2009/08/09/countries-with-universal-healthcare-by-date/.
So to answer the original question, yes. healthcare is indeed a right of all citizens. Times are changing, and the United States needs to catch up to the rest of the world.
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No one should suffer because he was born in an unfortunate situation.... this applies for healthcare and many other things. The only people who say that healthcare is not a right is those people who can afford healthcare. Lets place these people on the other side and lets see who fast people they change there minds. [spoiler]I don't mean everyone who can afford healthcare say that, I know that there are some people who are selfless.[/spoiler]
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No the only right you have is to die and even that can be withheld from you for a period
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Edited by Onion Beetle Fan: 4/25/2017 4:56:58 AMHealthcare is not a right. You are not intrinsically endowed with the product of other people's labor. Why is healthcare a right, yet food, water and shelter is not? Is enslaving people such as doctors a human right? Is food a right? How about clean water? Is education a right? Who provides you these things if they are rights? Who pays for it? Who enforces it? Who collects it?
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Edited by Superpug: 4/27/2017 3:27:45 AMPlease don't get me started on the UN. But as far as healthcare being standardized that is a terrible idea. Not only would it completely devastate the economy, but the care standardized healthcare gives you is garbage. Emergency room wait times are better in the United States than anywhere else. Quality is better because we have the best technology, most medical research and are able to make it affordable for the most people. Just for comparison America has 9 times the amount of MRI machines (per capita) than Canada. Rates of dying from cancer are up to being doubled outside of the United States. Across the entire economic spectrum your best place for surviving a terminal illness is America. These other countries of the "industrialized" (failing) world (euro zone) have healthcare for everyone, but it is crap. When you have standardized healthcare and privatized healthcare only the wealthy get to go to "super hospitals" for quality care, or "hospitals" in America. On the other hand if you make medical care a free market (which there is too much interference from Government in America right now) the prices will drop. That is how capitalism works, hospitals lower prices to get more customers, people invent new stuff to get more customers, everything grows and expands and we continue to have the greatest medical care in the world.
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U.S. is not part of the U.N. We are far superior.
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Not sure how it's working for our Canadian buddies.
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Honestly it's better for countries who don't have universal healthcare that America does not have universal healthcare. Universal healthcare really prevents what hospitals and doctors can do. Privatization allows you to cover more ground. The U.S should instead focus on making health insurance cost less and make it more affordable.
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Of course it's not. That's not how a right works. Rights are essentially there to make sure nobody gets in the way of what you should be allowed to do. Example: The 1st amendment gives us the right to free speech, the freedom of press, and peaceful protest. Nobody is allowed to infringe on those rights. Nobody is allowed to get in your way Now apply that to healthcare... Suddenly nobody is allowed to get in your way to receive medical treatment for free? Now a doctor will be [i]forced[/i] to treat you, and it'll come out of the pocket of the public? That's complete bullshit. That's not a right that allows you to be left alone, that's you taking something for others because you feel you deserve it simply because you exist. [u]That's straight up stealing.[/u] A doctor shouldn't be forced to see somebody, and I sure as he'll don't want to pay so that somebody else gets health coverage, unless I'm willingly donating through a charity. It's just not how a right works...just as you have the right to [i]seek[/i] an education, you also have the right to [i]seek[/i] healthcare just like everyone else. Nobody is standing in your way, but that doesn't mean you can demand something of others for free.
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In an ideal world it should be, but we don't live in an ideal world. And I'm not working for kind words
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The UN is a cancer that wants a worldwide single governmental dictatorship. Don't listen to them
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At the very least, basic care should be available to all. No one deserves to die because they can't afford it. That said, those with the means to pay shouldn't be stopped from getting higher quality care.
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Edited by CarneAsadaMilk: 4/26/2017 12:57:30 PMIs this the same UN that appointed Saudi Arabia to be the chair of the Women's Rights commission? The same Saudi Arabia where women can't drive and they are tracked via SMS to ensure they don't flee the country? The UN isn't the smartest bunch in the world, I'd take claims from that lot with a massive grain of salt.
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Universal healthcare [u]coverage[/u] =\= universal healthcare No country in the world has a superior health care system they all have their flaws and having lived in Denmark where there is basically no private healthcare sector at all and the US, I prefer the US.
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Single payer is a horrible idea. We also wouldn't need to legislate for universal healthcare if the FDA actually regulated patents effectively so that any kind of treatment doesn't cost an ass and an elbow
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Having food is more of a right than Healthcare, but I don't see anyone jumping to make sure everyone gets free food for life
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Everyone should have access to affordable and good health care. [spoiler]yes health care can be affordable and have good coverage [/spoiler]
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I agree. For profit healthcare is wrong. Healthcare shouldn't only be for those who can afford it, it should be for those that need it.
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Let them say that all they want. Until America gets a lot healthier than what it currently is, we can't afford it
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Who's in charge of all this then? The government? Ask any vet about how outstanding the VA is. You want more of that?
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The UN has exactly zero authority over setting or enforcing rights. So their opinion on it holds no more weight than if I "official endorsed" free handjobs for every person on the planet. That being said.. I do believe that we have not just a moral obligation, but also a self-preservasionist obligation to provide basic services that promote the growth of our own society. Education and heath have a direct correlation to the prosperity of a country as a whole. So I endorse both as "rights". But I'm just a guy on the internet so my opinion really doesn't mean shit.
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If we get rid of socialism and let capitalism prosper then yes
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The UN is a cluster -blam!- that has no business in the control of countries
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Edited by tjustie: 4/25/2017 3:18:02 PMI think it'd be interesting to see the overlap in people who hold the constitution and bill of rights in high regard and people who think that you don't have the "right to someone else's labor."
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No and there is no argument for it to be one.