Rand Paul and those like him claim that a right to healthcare is akin to slavery, and they are being allowed to propagate this absurd notion on mainstream media. I have yet to see somebody destroy this line of reasoning, so I thought I'd demonstrate just how asinine this statement is.
In short, if the right to healthcare is slavery, so is every other right we hold dear.
Rand Paul's argument goes like this: if healthcare is a Right, then physicians must be forced to provide care, and thus they are slaves.
This is clearly absurd - stating that healthcare is a right does not necessarily lead to enslaving doctors. It could simply be stated that we as a society will ensure that all among us will have access to healthcare, by using taxes to build a healthcare infrastructure. There will always be people willing to follow opportunity, and if we create attractive employment opportunities in the healthcare industry, there will be people willing to fill those jobs. A right to healthcare can be maintained without enslaving anybody.
But, let's assume that Rand Paul is right when he says that making healthcare is a right is akin to enslaving physicians. Instead, he says, we should only agree to rights that do not require other people's labor. I argue that no such right exists, that all rights necessarily require labor to maintain. Our right to liberty is maintained by our military - are soldiers then slaves, that they are forced to labor, and perhaps to die, to maintain my rights? Property rights are supported by a legal infrastructure for determining who owns a particular piece of property, as well as a police force to defend property against bad actors. Are judges, lawyers, and police officers slaves, that they work to support the property rights that Rand Paul holds dear?
Our rights exist because we collectively agree they do, and we punish any who attempt to violate our rights. All rights require active labor to maintain against the constant threat of encroachment by individuals who do not respect the social contract, giving the lie to Rand Paul's absurd line of reasoning.