This diary was going to start off with the more controversial title "Stop calling universal health care a 'right'". I would cringe whenever I saw or heard that phrase "health care is a right". However, in doing research for this diary, I stumbled into the right rhetorical flourish that lifted the fog for me.
My problem has not been with the concept of universal health care, and I've even come around on single payer if that's what it takes to get the job done. My problem has been with the rhetoric.
I've always thought of rights as "negative rights" when viewed through the lens of U.S. politics. As a brief refresher on "positive and negative rights" from Wikipedia:
Within the philosophy of human rights, some philosophers and political scientists see a distinction between positive and negative rights. According to this view a positive right imposes an obligation on others and the state to do certain things, while a negative right merely obliges others and the state to refrain from certain activities.
Who can blame me? The "Bill of Rights" is basically a list of negative rights. Positive rights are basically "entitlements" Conservatives have spent the last 20-30 yearns hammering on the word "entitlement" almost as hard as they've hit "liberal".
So, universal health care is clearly a positive right. Is it useful rhetoric to shorten it up as a "right"?
In doing my research for what was going to be a rant saying "please don't", I came into this study from a few years ago titled "Americans on Health Care Policy":
A strong majority believes the government should actively work to expand health insurance coverage to more Americans. In principle, most Americans seem to believe that health care is a right, like public education, that should be guaranteed by the government.
So, nothing to support my position there. Weird. At first, I thought it was sloppy summarization, because the word "right" didn't show up in the actual question. However, I then noticed the key phrase "like public education". Then it clicked.
It appears that way of asking it works. Here's the statement they posed: "Health care should be provided equally to everyone, just as public education is". 62% strongly agreed, and 22% agreed somewhat, with only 8%/7% disagreeing somewhat/strongly.
We've all heard the statement that everyone has a "right to a decent education". That's what finally made me realize that the general public has been conditioned to accept some positive rights as "rights" in the popular venacular.
So, I guess I'm ok with people saying "health care is a right". However, I'd strongly urge everyone to tack on the very important amendment "...just like public education."