Healthcare is a commodity

[PetiteOpRN]

You heard me, healthcare is a commodity, not a right.

I'm writing this post because there are comments made every days about how "the problem with modern health care is the fact that it's treated like a commodity, not a right," and various other statements to the same effect.

A commodity is a good or a service that is exchanged for money. Examples are food, housing, cars, cute shoes, and healthcare. All of these things require scarce resources combined with labor (another scarce resource) to produce the final good.

My time is scarce, and people do not have a "right" to it. Same goes for doctors. My parents (pediatrician and neurosurgeon) sacrificed time with their family because of the attitude that as doctors they have a responsibility to society to be on call 24/7. Their roles as physicians fulfilled other peoples' "right" to healthcare, while their children were raised by babysitters.

This attitude ends with me -- my top priorities are my family and myself. The hospital/patients are a distant 3rd and 4th. No one has a right to healthcare. I don't have a right to healthcare. If I want to seek out and purchase healthcare, then I can based on my right to freely associate with other individuals. But no person has any God-given right to my time or expertise or that of any other healthcare worker.

To assert that healthcare is a right is to advocate for slavery. No thanks.

[nursemike, ASN, RN]

I can't speak for the OP, but I had absolutely no thoughts related to those with wealth having greater access to limited resources. I was only thinking about the impossibility of every person being able to exact his or her "right" to health care. But even if that were the case, so what? You can't force people to spend many years in training knocking themselves out and making sacrifices, and keep paying them less and less, just so others can have their "right" to health care.

I am a liberal, so I'm pretty sure that entitles me to speak for all other liberals and say I don't believe anyone is arguing that a right to healthcare is Constitutionally guaranteed, or absolute and unlimited. I think I'm in line with most liberals in thinking that in an affluent, modern society, a system should be in place where anyone who needs it can get the treatment they need. I'm also pretty sure none of us are arguing that the entire burden should fall on any single segment of society. We don't enslave teachers to provide free public education. We pay them to do so out of our taxes. Doctors and nurses don't typically work for free, either. It can be argued that none of the professionals I've just mentioned are paid what they are worth. But a less liberal view would be we're worth what the market says we're worth. If there was a greater demand and/or lesser supply, we'd make more (to a point, because we aren't inelastic).

I also think it's worth remembering that the present debate over healthcare reform doesn't have so much to do with the indigent poor, many of whom are already covered by Medicaid. In recent history in the US, healthcare has been out of reach mainly to the working poor and lower-middle economic classes. I could pay for my own health insurance if my employer didn't provide it. It would entail some sacrifice, but it could be done. I don't think the same can be said for many of the aides I work with, though.

For good or ill, our society decided some time ago that we couldn't accept seeing large numbers of the hard-core unemployable dying in the streets of disease and starvation. And because liberalism is progressive, we aren't satisfied with that: we would like it if hard-working families didn't have to declare bankruptcy because one of them gets sick. It's a lot to ask, true, but this is quite a country, and I think we could achieve it.

[mfrancisco]

I am a liberal, so I'm pretty sure that entitles me to speak for all other liberals and say I don't believe anyone is arguing that a right to healthcare is Constitutionally guaranteed, or absolute and unlimited. I think I'm in line with most liberals in thinking that in an affluent, modern society, a system should be in place where anyone who needs it can get the treatment they need. I'm also pretty sure none of us are arguing that the entire burden should fall on any single segment of society. We don't enslave teachers to provide free public education. We pay them to do so out of our taxes. Doctors and nurses don't typically work for free, either. It can be argued that none of the professionals I've just mentioned are paid what they are worth. But a less liberal view would be we're worth what the market says we're worth. If there was a greater demand and/or lesser supply, we'd make more (to a point, because we aren't inelastic).

I also think it's worth remembering that the present debate over healthcare reform doesn't have so much to do with the indigent poor, many of whom are already covered by Medicaid. In recent history in the US, healthcare has been out of reach mainly to the working poor and lower-middle economic classes. I could pay for my own health insurance if my employer didn't provide it. It would entail some sacrifice, but it could be done. I don't think the same can be said for many of the aides I work with, though.

For good or ill, our society decided some time ago that we couldn't accept seeing large numbers of the hard-core unemployable dying in the streets of disease and starvation. And because liberalism is progressive, we aren't satisfied with that: we would like it if hard-working families didn't have to declare bankruptcy because one of them gets sick. It's a lot to ask, true, but this is quite a country, and I think we could achieve it.

Well said! I used to volunteer in a FREE ob/gyn clinic, and there are people getting FREE, high quality health care. It is the working middle class that is being hurt. You are correct. It is not right for a working family, who pays their taxes, to have to file bankruptcy because someone gets sick. I, myself, have a pre-existing condition, and had to pay $1000 per month. This put my new husband and I into a very huge hole. He was in the process of starting his own business (which in the eyes of a conservative is very admirable - getting paid according to his effort, contributing to the economy, etc, etc) and he had to go back to a well paying government job so that we could have healthcare. We both went to college, have worked our whole lives and payed taxes, yet we could not pursue the "American" dream, and almost went bankrupt due to my "pre-existing" condition that is not even a big deal. I can only imagine and do hear every day what other people go through, such as the cancer patients I work with on a daily basis. It's a bad system.

Regarding the OPs comment and explanation of the definition of "commodity" (thanks for the Econ 101 lesson)...putting aside the emotional and personal reasons I have for thinking that some sort of healthcare should be available for everyone, my measly BA in Economics is the reason that I believe that having a better system in place would actually be cost effective for everyone. Patients wouldn't spend thousands of dollars going to the emergency room for any little thing just to be able to see a doctor. There are already people receiving free health care. The tax payers are paying for it.

Thanks for listening.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

I have posted endless links showing how single payer is more cost effective.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

Ok, but whenever you say you have a "right" to someone else's time or service you are negating the other person's free will. That is what I take issue with.

How is your position congruent with the core nursing values?

Core nursing values essential to baccalaureate education include human dignity, integrity, autonomy, altruism, and social justice.

Teaching core nursing values. [J Prof Nurs. 2005 Jan-Feb] - PubMed result

Personally I believe that access to affordable health care is a basic human right both from a legal perspective and from a professional/ethical obligation.

Minnesota's good samaritan law requires me to stop at the scene of a accident or to call for help if I am unable to stop for safety reasons.

As professionals we lose some rights held by others because we are expected to serve the common good at times of crisis. Society breaks down if we forget that as humans we have basic obligations to each other.

[Katie82, RN]

. And I definitely understand the long hours msot physicians work. But I still find the analogy to slavery to be in very, very poor taste.

Perhaps "indenture" is a better word. Sign up - get abused....