reprise: is health care a right or a privilege? (CNBC)

by: los anjalis

Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 16:08:17 PM PDT

One of the speakers was Dr Mai Pham, senior policy advisor at the National Physicians Alliance (NPA).  The NPA fimly believes that health care is a human right and its campaigns and mission speak directly to that.  The other speaker was Michael Cannon, director of health policy at the CATO Institute, a free-market, libertarian organization.

Make your own conclusions about some incendiary statements made in this debate, but I must highlight one here.

"Saying health care is a fundamental human right is one of those simplistic nonsense slogans" -- Michael Cannon, CATO.

Unbelievable. No it's not. Saying health care is a fundamental human right is an important statement that we must embrace fully as a society (and to an extent have already embraced).

As guerillamamamedicine recently blogged:

i do not deserve a good job, or a beautiful home, or health care because i went to school and got my degree.  i deserve them because i am a human being.  if i were to say that i deserve them because of how many years i spent in school, or how much money i paid to go to school, or the number of letters behind my name, then i am saying that i deserve basic human dignity because of my educational privilege.

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I applaud Dr. Pham's calm and composure in the debate. I think we could learn some tips on how to stay on point and how to debate an issue, from her.

In any case, it was a pleasant surprise to see this issue covered by CNBC; perhaps the station will cover such issues in the future.