Healthcare as a Human Right?

Healthcare as a human right? Yes, but only in a sense. Each person has a ‘right’ to be treated by a doctor. But only if they can pay for the treatment, or have another person is willing to pay on their behalf or if they qualify for Medicaid.

Human rights begin and end with you. Your rights allow you to do something without interference, or to prevent people doing something to you. But your human rights do not extend to other people being forced to make positive acts for your benefit.

While you have a ‘right’ to healthcare, this does not extend to demanding the taxpayer to pay your bills. A man has a ‘right’ to privately own property. But that doesn’t mean he can demand other people to pay his rates. Africans can claim a ‘right’ to clean water, but this does not mean they can demand the water of other people. You have the right to defend yourself from harm. But not to demand other people to defend you. Otherwise your human rights would negatively effect other people, and the whole rights system would fall apart.

Where universal healthcare is provided to all, it is because a government has the money, resources and the incentive to do so. But when a government is already overextended, it should not indulge in more underfunded programs. And when the government provides you a tangiable benefit at the taxpayer’s own expense, then that benefit is a privilege. Not a right.