The Founding Fathers did not feel it necessary to enumerate a right to eat food or drink water. Though they made no guarantees that people could get food, or safe water to drink, it has long been recognized as a hostile, inhumane act to deprive others of this.
Christ tells us to give those afflicted with these wants something to eat, something to drink, and to consider it as holy an act as doing this for the Lord himself. He also tells us to do something else: heal the sick. It's been long recognized as a mercy and a holy act to care for the sick and the wounded.
In these days, we have done much to address hunger and thirst. Few Americans do without water to drink, and there are concentrated efforts to make sure that people do not starve. Americans need to address healthcare as they would address hunger and thirst, becaus it is not a privilege, nor merely a right, but a human need, a part of our necessary economic infrastructure.
We are all mortal. It was the conclusion of a passage in Kennedy's famous Commencement Address at American University. But it describes perfectly well a problem we faced even in the days of Kennedy's administration: balancing the need for healthcare, with the economics of providing it.
None of us can avoid all the slings and arrows of fate. Even if we are born with the best genes, have an immune system that unloads on germs with vulcan cannons blazing, exercise and eat right, accidents will happen, and age will take its toll. We can dream of nanotech that will do away with all this toil and trouble, but we can only dream, right now.
For the time being, we have to fix ourselves with current technology, current methods. And for those who don't have the world's best genes, best exercise habits, or diet, we'll need that maintenance, sooner or later.
We can envision healthcare in terms of noble ideological struggle, in terms of broad, glowing virtues, but when it comes down to it, healthcare is maintenance for the machinery of man, machinery that nowadays is asked to do more and more to keep our society running, and our economy going.
The question is not whether we can afford healthcare reform, or not afford it. Most people don't question whether we can afford to have a society where we feed the people who need to eat, or get clean, safe drinking water to those who need it. We take it for granted that these things are necessary for a functioning, prosperous society.
Medical care is necessary to deal with the inevitable accidents and illnesses of mortal life. It is also the best way to alert us to our own failure to live healthily. It is the necessary maintenance folks need to meet the demands of our modern society without breaking down.
If we want to just run our population in the ground, we can put off healthcare reform until it does break down, and we have to fix things from that debased state. If we want to see our society run its best, we need to understand that Healthcare is not merely a privilege or right, but a need.