I Have a Right to Affordable Health Care…and a Sig Sauer P229
By Duane Lester • Jul 25th, 2007“I…believe that every American has the right to affordable health care. I believe that the millions of Americans who can’t take their children to a doctor when they get sick have that right.- Barack Obama1
He’s right. Every American does have a right to affordable health care. Every American has a right to a lot of things.
The problem is the Democrat’s definition of what a right means.
Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that men were born with certain “inalienable rights.” An inalienable right is yours. You are born with it. They “are fundamental, are not awarded by human power, and cannot be surrendered.”2
Jefferson continues: “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men…” Notice the wording. It was deliberate. “That to secure these rights…” He did not right that “Governments are instituted among Men to provide these rights.”
Let me put it in context. The Bill of Rights gives you a right to a free press, yet you still pay for a newspaper and Fox News. It gives you a right to choose your own religion, but you have to buy your own Bible. You have a right to bear arms, but have to buy your own gun. 
According to the Second Amendment, I have a right to a SIG SAUER P229, “the handgun of choice for the FBI, the DEA and the Secret Service…”3 But, I don’t have the right to have the government force someone else to pay. It means the government cannot prevent my acquisition of that beautiful weapon.
The federal government does play a role when it comes to rights, but only one. They are there to protect them.
The Democratic candidates for president all think it is the government’s responsibility to provide each citizen with affordable health care. It is not. It is the government’s responsibility to keep your right to affordable health care secure. It is there to make sure nothing impedes your quest, and if something does, to utterly destroy it, then get out of your way as you go about your annual checkup.
They are not there to provide affordable health care by seizing the property of one to pay for another’s abortion or gastric bypass. They are not there to compel doctors to provide services at a rate lower than they want to charge. They are not there to tell you what treatments you can try and which ones you can’t. Americans need to understand that. Once you allow government into your examination room, you will lose all choice in your treatment.
In Great Britain, there are drugs the National Health Service will not provide, even though they are safe and effective.4 Some simply cost too much. If you are fat or smoke, you may not be given health care when you need it:
“Certain hospitals in the UK who have imposed a ban on smokers and the obese from receiving particular treatments have been defended for their action by the Health Secretary. Patricia Hewitt says it is a perfectly legitimate clinical decision for primary care trusts (PCT) to set a collective policy to deny operations to certain patients.5
Do you think it will be different here?
In Canada, you might not get treatment if you are old. The government doesn’t have a problem with that either.
“[Dr.] Nesdoly’s position may be justified by a 2005 Statistics Canada Community Health Survey, which found that 95.2 per cent of people over 65 already have a family doctor, compared to 75.7 per cent for those between 20 to 34. And the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons does not restrict a doctor’s right to reject a person based on age.”6
You can’t really choose another doctor there either. There just aren’t any. Canada is expected to have a shortage of more than 2,800 physicians by 2010.7 Why would you expect the results to be any different here?
As with most anything, more government involvement in health care is the opposite of effective. The government has only one role when it comes to health care: protect our right to choose the best health care available. They are not here to provide health care to me simply because I have a right to it.
If that is the case, I want my government to provide my Sig Sauer P229…with a full magazine, of course.
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1 http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inalienable_rights
3 http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,Soldiertech_SIG,,00.html
4 http://www.liberty-page.com/issues/healthcare/ukdrugswont.html
5 http://www.news-medical.net/?id=24508
6 http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060317/doctor_age_060317/20060317?hub=CTVNewsAt11
7 Ibid.
Proper health care simply means more than visiting your GP every six months. Getting enough nutrients belonging to the vitamin world can have an unbelievable positive effect on your well being. Taking care of the nutritional content such as magnesium and calcium of the food elements is always difficult and getting the right amounts of minerals and essential vitamins is tough through food stuff.
