>>>>>>>>"health care is NOT a right"
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>that marks you as a savage Kevin. You want to live a "devil take the hindmost" society .
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Health care cannot be a right for the simple fact that care is provided by people. If one has a "right" to care then one has a right to service from another person. You cannot resolve the civil rights of the provider with the right to care of the patient.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>We co-operate and live in a society for some benefit.
>>>>>
>>>>>No one is arguing otherwise.
>>>>>
>>>>>>I call Kevin a savage not in a derogatory way
>>>>>
>>>>>How do the kids say it...oh puh-leese!
>>>>>
>>>>>>but to mark the fact that he doesn't believe in society and , I suppose, neither do you.
>>>>>
>>>>>I believe one's labor and its fruits belong to the individual, not the community and not the State. Thus, I believe in a free society. I suppose you do not.
>>>>
>>>>That's pretty Darwinian -- the more capable can keep everything they make and the rest can go hang. I agree with Nick that a civilized society should not operate on that basis.
>>>
>>>We do not live in "should" land. We live in a country of laws and this is a question of freedom and are we going to have any. If so, one must allow citizens to make decisions with which we disagree. If we're to be free property rights, must be preserved because without them other rights are meaningless. We are already dangerously close to forced labor with the current laws regarding mandatory care in emergency rooms. I do not believe we've overstepped the line yet as the requirement is limited to emergency rooms and no one is forced to work there. However, should we mandate medical care to all, while dictating compensation for the provider, we will have further damaged our right to private property, namely our own labor and its fruit.
>>
>>This thing about doctors being enslaved or forced into labor by health coverage for the currently uninsured keeps coming up. Is it something going around on conservative talk radio or in the blogosphere? It seems like quite a reach to me.
>
>Actually, that is already happening with Medicare doctors. There is an extreme shortage of doctors who take Medicare in many areas of the country. The amount of $ paid for their services is so low that they cannot afford to treat Medicare patients and keep their clinics running. It takes too many patients to recoup their costs. Most don't even want to mess with the necessary paperwork. It's not wonder there are some out there bilking Medicare for $ (not excusing the practice in that comment).
>

I understand all that. The cost of malpractice insurance is one thing that has driven some doctors away from practicing, I know for a fact. But slavery? Forced into labor? That's the part that seems like a reach to me. And I'm curious why all of a sudden I seem to be hearing it left and right.