On Healthcare Not Being a Right

Dr. Paul Hsieh has authored another good, short (two page) posting that explains that health care is not a right: The Federal Health Care Muggers. Health care is not a right, just as food, shelter, jobs, etc. are not rights. Paul states this nicely:

Rights are freedoms of action (such as the right to free speech), not automatic claims to goods or services that must be produced by another. Attempting to guarantee an alleged “right” to health care must necessarily violate actual rights.

He then proceeds to describe just how various actual rights will be violated should various health care mandates being discussed these days be put in place. While there are very good economic arguments against national health care schemes, the more fundamental objections are the moral, rights-based ones.