Are you getting it free?? Cause I'm paying for mine are as the vast majority of Americans. And BTW, the constitution does say about healthcare unlike corporate welfare.
Health Care is a right contained within the US Constitution.
posted Thursday, 12 October 2006
Health Care is a basic right that is contained in the US Constitution. The Constitution was thought of by the Founding Fathers as a living document that could be adapted to changing times, much like the British Common Law. Jefferson and the rest of the founders recognized that times would change and that people would do things different than they would today. They also realized that their work was not complete and that it was not the final say. Thus, they wrote the Constitution in a way that would allow for great flexibility for future generations.
The first thing to keep in mind is the Ninth Amendment. It states that rights are not restricted because they are not specifically covered in the Constitution. This was designed to prevent future tyrants from saying that since a right was not specifically covered in the Constitution that they could take away our liberties.
The next amendment to be considered is the Tenth Amendment. It states that all rights not specifically given to the government should be specifically given to the states or the people. Thus, anything not specifically covered in the Constition, such as the power to make war, is given as a right to the states and the people. This amendment was designed to declare this country as seperate and distinct from the kings of Europe. In Europe, monarchs were specifically given all the rights in the universe such as the power of life and death and handed those rights out to the people or took them away as they saw fit. The Tenth Amendment states the exact opposite -- all rights not given to the government are given to the people.
This, however, cannot be used as an argument to abolish all laws within the country. If I, sitting in this library, were to shout bloody murder, I would be infringing on other people's right to study. If I were to sneak into someone's property and steal their things, I would be taking away their right to private property.
The principle of rights being established beyond the Constitution has been established with the right to privacy, starting with the writings of Louis Brandeis and cumulating with the Griswold decision. The creation of new rights beyond the ones specifically stated involves taking the COnstitution as a whole and finding common themes running through the Amendments.
Thus, the First, Second, Third, and the Equal Protection Clause all have a common theme -- a person's right to privacy in their own home. Thus, the local police force cannot snoop in people's homes at random in order to see who is breaking the law and who is not. That is why we have Roe -- it is a privacy issue that is protected by the Constitution. That is also why laws against Sodomy were struck down as well.
So, let us look at Health Care and how it applies here. The Equal Protection Clause states that everyone is to be treated equally. However, when we see the actual results of our broken medical system, it is obvious that there is gross inequality in our medical system that is completely contrary to the principles of the 14th Amendment. The wealthy people are able to get affordable treatment for their medical conditions, while even an $85,000 income can be wiped out by exhorbant medical bills. Thus, as illustrated by the tragic example of Buffy Orpington, there is a fundamental inequality within our system that flies in the promise of equality granted by the 14th Amendment.
Furthermore, there is another right that is lost that is a common thread throughout the bill of rights -- the right of people to pursue their own lives without hindrance. The basic premise of the Bill of Rights is that everybody should be allowed to pursue their own lives in peace and security. Yet an unequal health care system deprives people of the right to live their own lives in peace and comfort as set forth in the Bill of Rights.
There is another reason why health care is a basic human right under the Equal Protection Clause -- The establishment of a for-profit health care system is based on the premise that some lives are more valuable than others. We fought a Civil War in order to prove that all lives were equal. The Civil Rights legislation of the 1960's was based on the premise that all lives were equal. But the premise of our for-profit health care system is that all lives are equal, but some lives are more equal than others.
In interpreting the law, one must take into consideration the whole Constitution, not just the parts of it which are convenient to one's theories. Thus, one cannot claim, like Robert Bork does, that the Ninth Amendment is a piece of empty paper. If you take this position, then you are guilty of selective interpretation of the Constitution. And once you begin to pick and choose which parts of the Constitution you like and don't like, the law will have no meaning whatsoever, because everybody would have the opportunity to pick and choose which laws they will or won't follow.
The abuses of power in the Republican Congress are a direct result of this selective interpretation of the law and the clear meaning thereof.
It could also be argued that by so interpreting the Constitution, we are depriving corporations of their right to make money. But the 10th Amendment does not apply to corporations -- it applies to states and the people. Thus, the government has broad discretion in regulation of corporations under the Commerce Clause as opposed to regulating personal behavior.
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