Is Health Care A RIGHT?

Okay, I stutter, but that doesn't make me stupid. :) Let me explain. I am completely 100% for every person having access to affordable, quality health care. But, I do not think that health care is an inalienable right. I think it's a service that we decide to provide to every citizen, either through private health insurance or a public option that we, as citizens, decide to fund through our taxes.

Why do I believe it is not a right? Because a right is something you have access to that requires nobody else to do anything or provide anything. I have the right to free speech, but nobody is required to provide me with a microphone or a stage or a CNN camera or air time. For my own free speech, I have to provide the means myself through my own efforts, money, bargaining skills, etc.

I have the right to eat...but I do not have the right to food. If I want food, I have to earn it, work for it, pay for it, or bargain for it, or grow it myself. Nobody is forced to give me food. If I have a right to food, then somebody else is required to work, pay, grow, or provide it for me. My right to food necessarily creates a slave.

Does that make sense?

At the basic, level, a right should never require or force anybody else to do anything for you. If it does, it's not a right. It's a service.

Health care is broken in The United States. We have 47 millions individuals who cannot afford health insurance. Would I be open to a publicly funded Public Option? Sure. As long as it's Constitutional and as long as we the people...know what's in it and we approve it ourselves. I do believe that every citizen deserves to have affordable, quality health care. EVERY citizen.