Healthcare Is an American Right Not a Business

Posted by Frank W. Hardy Aug 16, 2009

We think nothing of the fact that fire, police, air traffic control and military services are a right of existence in American society. No one expects fee for service when calling the firemen to a burning building. And while we pay in the form of taxes, we never expect to be mailed a bill from LAX’s Tower for landing at grandma’s during Christmas. Why then do we accept healthcare fees for grandma’s hospital stay after a heart attack?

The words of the United States’ Declaration of Independence, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness state we shouldn't. Jefferson takes these words directly from John Locke’s Second Treatise of Civil Government, “…no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions….” Locke defines life and health in the statements, “But though this be a state of liberty…yet he has not liberty to destroy himself….” He continues, “…there cannot be supposed any such subordination among us, that may authorize us to destroy one another…or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, the health…of another.

In this statement, John Locke, and by inference Thomas Jefferson and the Founding Fathers, clearly state that health too is a natural right directed by a higher power. Life and health are fundamental inalienable rights granted by God and enforced by men. “And that all men may be restrained from invading others rights, and from doing hurt to one another…the execution of the law of nature is…put into every man's hands….”

The for-profit American healthcare system is known for its inequality. Rising costs leave millions uninsured and millions more underinsured as businesses flounder in uncompetitive environments due to rising health costs. With their words the Founding Fathers explain that America’s system is not only broken but also unjust, immoral and unconstitutional.