Do you have a right to healthcare and if so, does that right promote a form of slavery?

Speaking recently at a Senate hearing in Washington, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), while discussing the topic of healthcare, presented his belief that if a citizen is given a right to healthcare, that right creates a conscription process wherein the service provider becomes indentured to the citizen.

Sen. Paul, himself a doctor, is correct.  

Any citizen, given a right to a service, can then demand its provider (and, by extension, those who work for the provider) do so without the option of refusal.  That is a form of slavery. 

Further, the entitled citizen automatically enslaves all fellow citizens who must pay from their income, taxes sufficient to provide for what is incorrectly viewed as free healthcare. 

The now enslaved taxpayer has no right to refuse to fund the entitlement and no defense against costs that will surely rise from the lack of private sector competition. 

Government run healthcare cannot be sustained without steadily confiscating more in taxation, limiting availability and reducing quality of service. 

Healthcare is a personal responsibility.  It is not a right.  What a difficult concept to sell after generations have been lied to and indoctrinated to believe someone else is responsible for meeting their cradle to grave needs.  Entitlement is a growing sickness.  It has taken hold and weakens every individual who accepts it.

Governments are very good at promoting entitlement.  It is at once their biggest accomplishment and their greatest sin.  We live in a time when the citizenry wants government to take on more responsibility for meeting our personal needs.  There is an unintended consequence to this character flaw.  The more responsibility the individual willingly shirks, the greater their level of dependence and the weaker society becomes as a whole.

We have reached a time where we are more concerned about our rights than our responsibilities.  Beyond healthcare, we believe in our right to a minimum wage not caring that it is a government imposed tax on business and an artificial value on labor.  In truth, government has no place in the private negotiations between employer and employee. 

We think we have a right to not be offended by another individual based on our race, sexual orientation, age and gender.  Young people believe they have a right to quality, higher education with very little financial contribution on their part.  Where do these demands for rights end? 

The healthcare argument is one of the most offensive and least understood debates.  It is offensive because the suggestion that no one can afford to meet their own medical needs never addresses setting personal priorities.  Taxpayers should not be forced to pay for anyone who chooses a lifestyle that excludes medical coverage. 

Expecting your government to redistribute privately owned income to grant you a service is morally wrong.  Fiscally, it is a much more expensive venture when compared to the private sector competing in the marketplace for insurance dollars.  Allowing the latter would bring down tax rates leaving more money in your pocket to spend how you choose.   It is up to you to choose wisely.

To bring healthcare costs down and to begin to curb dependency requires allowing the people to make more of their own choices concerning their well being. 

The wise will buy health coverage.  The unwise?  Sucks to be them.