The President proposes National health plan; Social Security suggested as pattern for program

[Bluebear]

The President today proposed a nationwide system of compulsory health insurance as the key point of a 4-part national health plan.

The President, without mentioning figures, recommended to Congress that the nationwide health insurance plan be operated along the lines of the Social Security program with regular contributions by the public to an insurance fund. He did not say how much the tax should be.

The present Social Security system of old age insurance covers about 37,000,000 wage earners. The Administration is trying to expand it.

"We should seek to include as many persons as possible within the health insurance system, so that more may benefit, and costs can be more widely shared," Mr. Truman said..."The truth is it will save more than it will cost...More and better care can be obtained for this same amount under the program I am recommending." - 4/22/1949, Toledo Blade

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=OulOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EAAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3650,1786028&dq=president+social+security&hl=en

What a socialist. :eyes: Will this country never recognize health care as a fundamental and universal human right?

MORE:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, proclaimed that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one's family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care."

Although this statement of high principle was adopted at the urging of the United States, and although it reflects the truths of our nation's founding documents, our government has achieved neither formal recognition nor practical realization of these rights. Mass homelessness and the escalating health care crisis in the US are compelling evidence of our disregard for human rights. Sadly, our country is but one of many nations where grave offenses against the dignity of human beings are commonplace, and global enforcement of human rights remains a distant goal. In the US, however, the twin advantages of democratic institutions and great wealth provide the opportunity for our nation to implement the principles human rights. Implementation of human rights principles will lead inexorably to the elimination of mass homelessness.

http://www.nhchc.org/humanright.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cool Logic]

2. "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself...

and one's family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care."

Those are not "rights." For a "right" of an individual cannot be something that places an obligation on another individual, or group of individuals to provide it.

The concept of a "right" pertains only to action--specifically, to freedom of action. It means freedom from physical compulsion, coercion or interference by other individuals.

[Bluebear]

3. Go argue your semantics with the United Nations, although my sense is you don't like them either

[cali]

4. bullshit.

we consider education a right in this country. How do you square that with your definition?

[aquart]

5. How about responsibility? Ever heard of that word?

Matthew 25:41-46.

[Bluebear]

11. +

[leveymg]

6. You will not be comfortable, therefore, with FDR's "4 Freedoms", either.

That's the speech delivered on January 6, 1941, and a statement of the positive ends western peoples were fighting against fascism for: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrthefourfreedoms.htm

Certainly this is no time for any of us to stop thinking about the social and economic problems which are the root cause of the social revolution which is today a supreme factor in the world. For there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy.

The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:

Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.

Jobs for those who can work.

Security for those who need it.

The ending of special privilege for the few.

The preservation of civil liberties for all.

The enjoyment -- The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.

These are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.

If your small libertarian conceptions can't stand for these things, we invite you to leave DU and go live freely alone on a desert island, somewhere, ranting to the coconuts about freedom from "interference by other individuals."

[Warren Stupidity]

7. That is the narrow right wing definition.

The much broader definition is:

Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory. Rights are of essential importance in such disciplines as law and ethics, especially theories of justice and deontology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights

[procon]

8. Societies develop their own rights to sustain cultural norms

We live in ordered democratic societies, not as individuals, but as contributing members of the larger community. Every society establishes their own cultural norms through traditional or formal rights that set the minimum standards by which the whole community benefits.

High-functioning societies demand more from their people because much is given in return. Individuals establish their societies based on commonalities of purpose that sustain and uplift their rights to a certain quality of life. No individual has a "right" to enjoy all the benefits of living a way of life that is sustained by that society without accepting the coresponding obligations as a member of that community.

There is no "freedom" in barbaric, failed societies where the strongest individuals claim rights that are not available to all the people of the community... even to life itself.

[Bluebear]

9. You need to post more :)

[Javaman]

10. Why wasn't this suggested 2 freaking years ago? nt