Jerry Pournelle on the President’s Health Care Speech
11th September 2009
Nowhere did anyone address the fundamental question: under what principle do we all acquire a right to health care paid by someone else, and under what principle do those who have to pay acquire the obligation? Whatever principle that is must have some other consequences, and I’d like to know what those are. It’s a pretty fundamental change in our political philosophy. Does it mean that everyone is entitled to anything that someone else can afford? It probably doesn’t apply to health care alone. Where does this right stop? Does it apply to cosmetic surgery for burn victims? Those with genetic malformations? Aging skin sag? Breast implants? I don’t ask these questions frivolously: since I don’t know what principle is being applied to infer that everyone is entitled to health care whether they can afford it or not, it’s hard to see what else that principle implies. There must be other implications, but what are they?