Right to Universal health coverage

For this series of posts discussing what does not qualify as fundamental human rights, I have one final target. Like usual, my post title reveals this target, universal health care.


The bottom line is that humanity can certainly consist of people living fulfilling lifestyles without the government taking charge over access to health care. Having access to such services is not fundamental to our lifestyles and should not be considered a fundamental human right.

I am going to do something that I have done before when talking about human rights. I will acknowledge that there can be an argument made that health care does indeed qualify as a right, though this can be debated. We have health care options available, and it can be problematic if people in need are deprived of access to these services. This is especially true in emergency rooms, where it's probably best to focus on addressing emergencies rather than taking the time to establish payment first. I don't ever want to hear that someone's life could have been saved, but no effort was made because doctors had not managed to establish insurance or other payment options. Since we have limited resources, questions have to be asked about where to draw the line.

The nature of this nearly complete series is to establish whether or not I view certain things as fundamental human rights. Since it's clear that this is not truly fundamental, whether or not it qualifies as a right is technically irrelevant to this discussion.