3/19/2021 Interdisciplinary pre-release material May 2021

Reference 1: Article from The Washington Times

Why health care is not a

‘right’
By Roger Stark - - Sunday, April 30, 2017

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

These words in the Declaration of Independence define the “rights” of American citizens. They do not
include healthcare. Yet for over 100 years, some Americans have believed that healthcare is not only a
right, but that the government should provide it and taxpayers should pay for it.

If medical treatment is a right, then what exactly does that mean? Does it mean that your neighbors, through
the government, are obligated to provide all healthcare for you? Does it mean that anyone can demand the
government to pay for hospitalization, for prescription drugs, and for specialty treatments such as organ
transplants? Does it mean that every American has a right to the skill and knowledge of all physicians and
providers?

These questions lead to other questions. How does society pay for healthcare for all? Who gets to decide
who should receive healthcare and how much? Who gets to decide what the healthcare budget should be?
Who should have the power to make healthcare decisions for us?

Or rather than confront these issues, do proponents of healthcare as a right mean everyone should have
health insurance? The problem with this belief is that simply having health insurance does not guarantee
timely access to actual medical care. Every citizen of Canada has government-paid health insurance, but
the long wait times for treatment, most notably for specialty care, would be unacceptable for Americans.

Everyone can agree that healthcare is a necessity of life. So are food, shelter, and clothing. Yet no one is
demanding universal “food care” or universal government housing. The critical issue is that people expect
access to food, shelter, and clothing. Americans expect choices and competition when they shop for these
necessities of life.

The government exists to guarantee free markets for Americans when they seek access to virtually any
product, but especially access to food, shelter, and clothing. No one would expect society, through
government, to pay for these necessities of life for everyone.

If “food care” was controlled, paid for, and regulated by the government, we would have overutilization,
fewer choices, and a limited supply. The private system of grocery stores and supermarkets guarantees
access, choice, and competitive prices for everyone. The free market system is efficient, voluntary, and fair.

The critical point is utilizing the best mechanism to allow the greatest number of Americans access to
healthcare. The Canadian single-payer system does not guarantee timely access. The American experience
with the Veterans Administration hospital system, a comprehensive government-controlled, single-payer
healthcare program, reveals unacceptable wait times and huge inefficiencies. Fundamentally, these systems
ration healthcare by waiting lists and limited money. The quality of care can be variable.

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Because of budgetary constraints, the demand for healthcare is much greater than the supply in virtually
every country with a government-controlled healthcare system.

Just like in all other economic activities, the free market offers the best solution to provide the greatest
access to healthcare and to control costs. People freely making their own healthcare decisions and using
their own healthcare dollars would give Americans the best chance to utilize their “right” to access
healthcare, with safety-net health programs provided for those who can’t afford it.

At the end of the day, healthcare is an economic activity like any other, albeit with the most personal of
interactions between patient and provider. Society should work toward putting patients in charge of their
healthcare, reducing the role of government, and focusing on access, not healthcare as a supposed “right”.

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