Wednesday, August 08, 2018

When health care is a "right"

We've long maintained that this notion of health care being a 'right' is fraught with peril:

"The noble-sounding idea that "health care is a right" doesn't even pass the smell test: health care must be delivered by a provider, so if it's a "right" then that person is being forced to provide that care whether or not he or she is remunerated for doing so."

But it goes even further: if health care is a 'right' then, by extension, the government can force health care professionals to provide their service regardless.

Think that's far-fetched?

Well, our Neighbors to the North© are about to put that into practice in real-time:

"Vowing to maintain public dental services in the province, Quebec’s health minister said Thursday he would sign a ministerial decree to block dentists from withdrawing from the public health system amid a bitter standoff over contract negotiations."

Now, I have no idea how much force of law the gentleman can bring to bear on this, or whether he has the ability to actually force these dentists to provide care, but the fact that he believes that he does is chilling, no?

Next up: pediatricians.

Hat Tip to Physics Geek, who notes "Hey, so Canada is kind of cool with forced servitude. Kind of thought slavery was illegal, but whatever."

Yup.
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