Health Care: Right or Privilege?

Since the Health Care bill has passed both houses of legislature, and the draft of the final bill for Obama to sign is in the making... I wanted to comment on the significance of its passage.

Over the months, I've stressed my many reasons as for why I believe this bill is despicable-- The horrid service it will bring, the inexplicable tax burden on most Americans, its social injustice and direct attacks on freedom, etc.. However, one key issue is always overlooked.

Often, you hear people debate whether or not health care is a right or a privilege; Despite the claim that this is only a moot point, I seek to argue that it is not, and in fact, this is the best argument against the future health care system.

I wish to quote a passage from a popular 20th century novel, "Atlas Shrugged":

"Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything-- except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the 'welfare' of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have a right, desire or choice in the matter, was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only 'to serve.' [...] I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind-- yet what is it that they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands? [...] Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce. Let them discover the kind of doctors their system will now produce. Let them discover, in their operating rooms and hospital wards, that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of man who resents it-- and still less safe, if he is the sort who doesn't."

Wow. That just sums it up perfectly, doesn't it? Similar to "Atlas Shrugged", we have allowed the looters to take hold of us, to transcend our own moral codes and trick us into believing that it is for "the greater good". I say, do not let them take our freedom! Do not allow the looters to spread their filth, and contaminate everything they touch; this is just the beginning. Why do we have a right to a service? Who are we to demand that the doctors exist for out own need? The thought is utterly despicable.

We have no right for health care, same as we have no right to dental care, rent movies, watch television, fly on airplanes... And why should we? The free market system has provided us with a service. There is a cost, should we wish to purchase the service. We are lucky to have such a service offered to us at all. I am not denying the claim that millions cannot afford health care. However, since when has need demanded payment? In accepting this bill, we are accepting the idea that the looters have a right to demand other's earnings on the behalf of the needy. A certain slogan comes to mind, doesn't it? "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" Since when have we abdicated our freedom to the looters and men who wish to enslave our bodies and minds? Why should we accept their idea that need constitutes tribute? What world do we wish to live in?