Health Insurance is a Responsibility, Or is it a Right?
October 12, 2008
The debate for president that took place in Nashville, TN this week was many things, from boring to aggressive. When the topic of health care and insurance was presented, the candidates had interestingly different things to talk about.
The moderator of the debate, Tom Brokaw of NBC News, asked each candidate whether they thought health care (and presumably health insurance) was a right, privilege, or a responsibility. Republican candidate John McCain, a U.S. Senator from Arizona, went first. Senator McCain said that health care was a responsibility.
This was not a surprising response, seeing as McCain’s reform plan includes giving the consumer more health care options (like the individual health insurance tax credit) and encouraging more competition in the private health insurance market (by permitting Americans to buy plans across state lines.)
Senator Obama had a different response. He answered that health care was a right. This answer is consistent with his belief that all Americans should have access to health care and have health insurance. Although he does not support universal health care, he does like the idea of universal coverage.
Senator McCain stated that health care should be the consumer’s responsibility, and that we should be responsible for our own health insurance. This seems like McCain thinks of health care as a commodity. Oh the other hand, Obama believes that health care is a basic right, not a commodity. One might wonder, as do his critics, if this is laying the groundwork for “socialized medicine.
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