Michael Moore was on hardball. Someone asked him about non citizens reaping the benefits of a universal health care system. What was to prevent people from coming here and getting care with no charge? Moore said he thinks if someone is physically in this country they should be able to see a doctor if they are sick. In other countries, health care is a right, we are the only country in which health care is a 'benefit'.

I'm always thinking of how to take things back to basics. I think the question is not whether health care is a right, but whether it is a basic right. There is a big difference. It cannot be a basic right of a human being if that person would have to impose on another. It takes human interaction for one person to help another. The person helping has to decide whether to help a fellow human being. One could ask if they have an obligation to help another, but this question is irrelevant. The more basic question is whether the person needing health care has the right to demand help from another. From this perspective it is not so clear, but Moore insists that the government can force one person to help another, because that is what in effect he is saying.

Another way to look at it is to take it to extremes. Suppose we demand our government institute universal health care. Free health care for everyone, no matter whether you pay taxes or not. Now just suppose the doctors, those actually providing this care, have to work much harder to provide this care, and feel they simply do not want to work so hard. They just quit. Realistic? Of course not, but for the sake of argument, could we force them to provide? Of course not.

In his movie Moore talks about a man that lost two fingers, but could only afford to have one put back on. We are supposed to feel sorry for the guy. I would, it's too bad he lost a finger, but some would argue that he was being careless, and that is the price he pays for that. Does that mean someone else should have to pay so this guy could have his finger? The real tragedy is that it costs so much in the first place. The real tragedy is that there are no doctors available that would take the time to give this guy his finger back, regardless of whether he could pay. This is one reason I couldn't be a doctor, there would be no money in it for me, cause I would want to put the guy's finger on whether he could pay me or not. There are those that would help regardless of the lack of compensation, but they aren't available, they are all helping people much worse off than someone that lost a finger but is otherwise healthy.

One more thing. We can do great things in this country health care wise. Doctors are capable of opening up a person's chest and fixing a heart. It takes technology for such advancements, and it takes time and money. Health care costs a lot because we are paying for these advancements. Sure, there are some making exorbitant profits, but this is a flaw of human nature, not of the system.....

I gotta get ready for class....