Health Insurance: Life or Death Issue?

We're mortal. That ain't gonna change no matter what any organization (insurance or government) does or doesn't do.

That brings me to my first point: medical care isn't about saving lives. it's about postponing the inevitable (death). 

Looking at things that way takes abit of the edge off of the "life and death" spin around the free healthcare issue and focuses us on the true nature of the problem: who should be responsible for paying for me to receive a given medical procedure?

Let's break that down a bit further:

Paying:  Doctors have to eat.  Medical equipment is expensive.  Running a hospital costs money.  This is why medical procedures are not free.

Medical Procedures: "health care" can be taken to mean anything from emergency procedures given to people in a car crash to fixing my hang nail, to cosmetic stuff (plastic surgery, etc).

Some questions to ponder:

• For each type of medical procedure that a doctor can perform, is it your God-given right to receive that procedure for free?  Remember: we're all gonna die no matter what.
• If not all medical procedures are a right, who do you think should be trusted to decide which procedures you should have to pay for, and which you shouldn't?
• Is it morally justifiable to take someone else's property to fund your medical procedures?
• If so, do you believe that it is morally justifiable to take someone else's property to fund improvements in other aspects of your life (besides health)?
• If so, which aspects?  Where do you draw the line?

If you answer these questions thoughtfully and honestly, I think you'll start to see how the issue of free health care is just part of a broader moral question: is it morally just to take someone's property to improve someone else's quality of life?

Stu's Barebones Guide to Political Philosophy

It's all just a matter of "whose morality?" and "to what extent?"