Health Insurance Is A Right And A Responsibility

In Tuesday night's presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee was everything from awkwardly aggressive to downright boring. But when the topic of health care (and health insurance) came up, the candidates had very different and interesting things to say.

The moderator of the debate, Tom Brokaw, questioned each candidate as to whether health care is a right, responsibility or privilege. The first to answer was John McCain. He responded that is was a responsibility.

This was not a surprising response, seeing as McCain's reform plan includes giving the consumer more health care options (like the individual health insurance tax credit) and encouraging more competition in the private health insurance market (by permitting Americans to buy plans across state lines.)

Senator Obama had a different response. He answered that health care was a right. This answer is consistent with his belief that all Americans should have access to health care and have health insurance. Although he does not support universal health care, he does like the idea of universal coverage.

Senator McCain stated that health care should be the consumer's responsibility, and that we should be responsible for our own health insurance. This seems like McCain thinks of health care as a commodity. Oh the other hand, Obama believes that health care is a basic right, not a commodity. One might wonder, as do his critics, if this is laying the groundwork for "socialized medicine.