The Opposite Side: Health Care as a Privilege (SOC 490)

     Last week we were asked to blog about our viewpoint on whether we think health care is a right or a privilege. While I stated that I thought it was a right, this week we had to support the opposing side. Both sides of the debate, whether health care should be a right or a privilege have valid arguments, which make this issue complex and controversial.
     Donald Boudreaux in the Universal Health Care Opposing Viewpoints book argues that "it would make poor economic sense to treat access to health care as a human right. With health care freely available, individuals would use more health care than they actually needed, driving up the cost of care." I feel as though this would be true because some people would take advantage of the system. For example, just because it's free someone might go to receive health care if they have a cold, while someone with a terminal illness might need that care more. Who is to decide who needs the health care more? Who, then, would receive care first? With anyone and everyone showing up to doctor's offices and hospitals, the cost of health care could increase. "Because providing healthcare takes scarce resources, offering it free at the point of delivery would raise its cost and reduce its availability." Boudreaux concludes by stating that we will have better access to healthcare if we only lose our attempts to provide healthcare as a "right" that is paid for mostly by others.
     Another viewpoint on the side that states health care is not a right is Leonard Peikoff. "Health care can only be treated as a right through the violation of personal rights of doctors...Now our only rights...are the rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. That's all...they are the rights to action, not to rewards from other people." This argument goes with the idea that you should have to work hard in order to receive things like health care, instead of it just being handed to you. "The system gives you the chance to work for what you want-not to be given it without effort by somebody else."
     Another issue brought up in class was this: People from all over the world come to the Cleveland Clinic for care and the Clinic is rated the best hospital in the United States, yet not everyone in Cuyahoga County is healthy, explain. I think that people are going to be healthy and unhealthy no matter where in the world they are or whether or not they live near a good hospital. Also, just because somebody lives near the Cleveland Clinic, does not necessarily mean they are going to be healthy. Similarly, if I lived near a fast food restaurant, that does not mean I will be unhealthy.
     While I previously stated that health care is a right, I have to know the opposing side in order to support my own. The same goes with any controversial issue. After attempting to support the side that healthcare is a privilege, I found it somewhat easy because I agree with some of the points that support that viewpoint. Being able to defend both sides of the argument helps one to truly understand their own beliefs. As it is stated on the back cover of Universal Heath Care: Opposing Viewpoints, "Those who do not know their opponent's arguments do not completely understand their own."