"Healthcare Is a Human Right" Might Get You Killed

Originally published in The American Spectator

Single-payer healthcare systems sideline the well-being of doctors, relying on their adherence to ideology, as a silent erosion unfolds.

At the DNC riots in November some protesters brought signs claiming, “Health Care is a Human Right.” Senator Sanders and Congresswoman Jayapal proposed the “Medicare for All” (single-payer health care) bill in May of this year with the same slogan. Its support increases with every re-introduction; this time managing 112 co-sponsors.

Classic Liberalism enumerates inalienable rights and tradition has limited these to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Taken to its logical conclusion, a right to receive health care would mean that the state should force doctors to work. This is already happening in Scandinavia — “Medicare for All’s” North Star. This has led to an absurd state of affairs: Discussions around health care only ever consider patient outcomes and costs. The ability to keep doctors alive and willing, however, is taken for granted.

A cas…