Is health care a “right” or is it “a service”?

Do some people deserve to be healthy and others sick?

Is health care a privilege? The 2010 Maine Democratic Party platform refers to health care as a “fundamental human right,” while the 2010 Maine Republican Party platform seeks to “clarify that health care is not a right. It is a service.”

Referring to health care, is it true that “only market-based solutions will solve the problems,” as stated in the 2010 Republican Party platform? Is cutting health care for Mainers a “market-based solution?”

The cuts that have been proposed include cuts to low-cost drugs for the elderly and disabled, the Medicare Savings Program and MaineCare, along with Head Start. By definition, those cuts target the elderly, disabled and vulnerable.

I have been trained as a physician and I am a health care recipient. It is unthinkable for me to consider putting those lives at risk.

Sure, they can still go to an emergency room when their illness has advanced to the critical level. Or, they could choose between food, shelter, heat and going to a clinic that offers pay-per-disease service. But could they then afford the treatment for their illnesses?

Wouldn’t it be better to keep as many people as possible in the health care system; practice preventive medicine with mammograms, pap smears and colonoscopies, and provide medication and treatment early for diseases discovered?

The Republican Party has been attacking health care on both the state and federal levels, true to their platform.

Heidi Brooks, Lewiston

Copy the Story Link