Thoughts on Health Care

"No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick."

With the health care debate raging on, I see more and more people making claims like the above.

I don't think that many people would disagree with the initial statement, but the issue is much bigger than life or death. Often the issues at hand are quality of life and length of life. When health care is claimed to be a fundamental right instead of a privilege, then cost must becomes of no consequence. You can't argue against the economic consequences of spending a million dollars to keep a 90 year old woman alive for 10 more hours, just like you can't argue about the consequences to the owners of freeing 200 slaves on their million dollar a year plantation. The issues, if viewed as a right to health care and a right to personal liberty, are above mere dollar and cents consequences.

Where all will agree that if you're 90 years old and can extend your life for 10 hours at the cost of a million dollars, and somebody else will pick up the tab (the government) it's easy to pull the lever and say, "Sure, spend it. Great Grandma is worth it" Even though from a more holistic standpoint this probably isn't a wise choice given a million dollars could feed thousands of starving children elsewhere in the world.

So while we can probably agree that no one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick, I'm sure some would disagree with what this implies: Everyone should be allowed to live as long as they desire without regard to the use of resources required.