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This Isn’t About Politics. This Is About Basic Human Rights, Health Care Reform
As thyroid patients and patients with chronic conditions, our medical expenses are outrageous. Some of us have lost our homes, while others have lost the ability to work; and as a result, our insurance. Undoubtedly, this is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, post-diagnosis, many of us are no longer eligible for private health insurance. Sadly, we don’t get the treatment we need; we’re forced to put our lives at risk more than we already have. This on top of everything else, we should tolerate?!
We struggle daily to manage our conditions, add to that finding a doctor willing to partner with us in achieving wellness, add to that the inability to afford insurance and, or treatment for our respective conditions and what do we have? Death, unless you know something I don’t.
Additionally, those without a chronic condition who can’t afford insurance shouldn’t be denied basic health care; nobody should. Health Care Reform is a human rights issue, not a political issue.
Recently, we posted about Martin Bosworth’s death, a dear friend and fellow community member. He struggled to get insurance and couldn’t. He fought passionately and dedicatedly for health care reform. Our comments applauded his efforts and celebrated his endeavor. Let’s continue fighting.
What can we do for health care reform, for our community and every American? Over the next 48 hours, urge everyone we know to contact our local congress person. Call Washington and the District Office. Click this link for details.
In case you missed it: Please read today’s Going For The Throat: Awareness, Or How My View Of The World Reads Like A NATO Press Conference. Robyn’s post is about the necessity for universal awareness and more. In my opinion, this sentence embodies her post: “Because, what I do know is that it’s all related to our health, we just don’t know it yet. “Robyn Davis Hahn. Many people have shared their thoughts with Robyn. We encourage you to continue connecting with her and each other.
Tags: contact congress, HCR, health care, health care reform, health care reform bill, health insurance, health insurance for all Americans
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54 Responses to “This Isn’t About Politics. This Is About Basic Human Rights, Health Care Reform”
Leave a Reply to Melanie
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In Obama’s own words:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk
Katie, you asked me a question about why i didn’t think health care was a human right. I’d say that true rights are inalienable…and do not impose an obligation upon others to provide them to us. In fact our Constitution recognizes this…liberty, life, the pursuit of happiness…and we best enjoy these rights when we are left alone in fact. which is what gov’t is supposed to do…protect those inalienable rights…not restrict them like this health care bill will do.
And government can not grant an inalienable right. if government grants a right, it can take it away – and that’s not an inalienable right. I think it is important to remember that government derives it’s just (and limited) powers from the people. The people do not derive their rights from the government. The distinction is incredibly important.
So getting back to someone providing us something at their expense, that is an “entitlement”.
Here’s something I had kept from some blog – that I thought was quite informative on the subject of right vs. entitlement:
What exactly is a right? A right, simply put, is that which cannot be denied to the individual by others without due process of the law (some would argue the last part of this sentence). In other words, a right is nothing more than the freedom to pursue something without interference from others.
What then is an entitlement? Merriam-Webster defines an entitlement as: “belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges”. In other words, an entitlement is something owed to you without you having to pursue it.
The definition of a right, over time, seems to have morphed to have the same definition as an entitlement.
Just because you have a right to something does not mean you are entitled to that something. The right to keep and bear arms does not mean that others must provide you with a gun, it just ensures your ability to pursue the means to acquire a gun.
As Massachusetts Treasurer Tim Cahill has explained, under the ObamaCare experiment in that state:
-Insurance premiums there are now the highest in the country.
-Health care costs there have skyrocketed, not fallen, and health care spending is now 27% higher than the national average.
-The state is already having to conduct cost containment hearings.
-Seven hospitals there are suing over outrageously inadequate reimbursements.
-It has only “worked” as long as it has due to extensive federal assistance (who’s going to bail out the country when this time-disproven insanity goes national?).
-Massachusetts was the easiest place in the country to make ObamaCare work (it was enacted with the highest number of already insured citizens in the country)–and it was still this much of a disaster. Imagine how much worse it will be for states like Texas and California (which have upwards of 20% uninsured).
This will devastate the economy, which will then cause gov’t to institute more ineffective measures to try to stop it.
Dear Thyroid-
I just got back to this discussion. Sorry it took me so long to respond, but I do believe this is a political issue. I ask who is doing the voting on if we should have health care reform the political people we voted in and I’m sure everyone who is deciding for us we did not all vote for. If I agree or not one way it will be decided for me, even though I wrote my congressmen he may not listen to my letter and go the other way. This is not my decision it is the decision of the person who had the majority vote in that office. So, yes again it is all political.