Is Health Care a “Right”?

Professor Bainbridge gives his views on the subject here. Excerpt: As the analysis thus far suggests, private property and freedom of contract are at the center of the debate over positive and negative rights. You cannot achieve positive rights without…

Professor Bainbridge gives his views on the subject here. Excerpt:

As the analysis thus far suggests, private property and freedom of contract are at the center of the debate over positive and negative rights. You cannot achieve positive rights without infringing on someone’s negative rights to private property and/or freedom of contract. Health care “reform,” for example, will inevitably affect — almost certainly adversely — my contractual relationship with my doctor.

Here, as elsewhere, achieving a system of positive rights will come at a very high cost not only to individuals but also to society as a whole. . .

When we infringe on private property and freedom of contract in the name of creating positive rights, we thus infringe on the very engine of democracy. As Russell Kirk observed, “freedom and property are closely linked: separate property from private possession, and Leviathan becomes master of all.”

So, no, health care is not a “right” — at least not the kind that advances liberty.

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