Is Healthcare A Right Or A Privilege?

I think we need to call for a summit of the American People to decide what things constitute “rights”.  We have all these people running around proclaiming an individual’s “right” to healthcare.  Says who?

What is a “right”?  How do we determine what differentiates between rights and privilege?  Who decides what our rights are?  Once something is determined to officially be a “right”, how far must the government go in ensuring that right is not infringed upon?

For the last 200 years or so, has the citizenship of this country included healthcare in their lists of unalienable rights?  Have they demanded their “right” to healthcare be protected?  Have they demanded that the government take responsibility for providing healthcare to all citizens? 

I’m just wondering why, all of a sudden, there are those who believe that the government shouldn’t tell them how many pieces of pizza they can eat or how many sodas they can drink, but the government can and should ensure the continuation of our good health. 

The United States already has enough socialized medicine.  It already doesn’t work.  Why do we want to continue relegating the control of various industries to a bureaucracy that cannot control itself?  I would not hire someone with a record of profit squandering to run any major corporation, yet we want the government to run our healthcare system?

Wake up America.  David Gratzer wrote an illuminating article on this subject last year, and I think more Americans should read this before they start clamoring for national healthcare.  We need to get off the couch, get informed, get to work, and get to controlling our own lives and our own futures.