DeMint: Health Care Is a Privilege, Not a Right

[ccharles000]

Earlier this week, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) was asked by Charleston’s Post and Courier whether “people have a right to health care?”

“I think health care is a privilege,” he said. “I wouldn’t call it a right.”

I do think in our country and in any civil society there should be a safety net for basic health and food and shelter, but that doesn’t mean that the whole system should be designed around the belief that people can’t make their own decisions, can’t be responsible for themselves. … What we do need to do is make sure everybody has access to policies they can afford, own and keep. We’re not doing that. What we’ve done is set up the whole system to reward employers for offering health insurance, but we don’t support people who don’t get their insurance at work, and that’s not fair.

This is pretty stark indication that no amount of debate and negotiation on health care reform is going to iron out the ideological differences between the two parties on the issue.

http://washingtonindependent.com/55952/demint-health-care-is-a-privilege-not-a-right

[bluestateguy]

1. I for one would welcome having that debate with him

and I encourage him to keep on talking.

[Orsino]

22. Would love to ask him....

..."Exactly which Americans do you want denied health care?"

[LibDemAlways]

2. That is such a monumentally ridiculous statement, so obviously the

ranting of a complete idiot, that there is no use even responding to it. However, if given the opportunity, I would ask DeMint if he would still consider health care a "privilege" if he or a loved one was involved in a serious accident and required immediate medical attention or if he was experiencing chest pains and was rushed to the ER. What if the doctors refused to see him on the grounds that he had no "right" to their services?

What an ass, Unbelievable.

[snake in the grass]

6. Conservadrones...

...never pass up the opportunity to blatantly show their misanthropy. I really cannot stand these people.

[jbnow]

3. To start I think it would be fair to quit using taxpayer money

to pay the premiums on congress's health care.

I know they can afford to get some so it won't kill them or anything. But I really think it is wrong that we put out all of that money for health care insurance for them...it isn't a right after all.
Those who do not care about protecting people in this country...many who work a hell of a lot harder than they do...can protect themselves.
The working poor, the self employed person who struggles through, the laid off middle aged executive who has now spent through their savings and their already depleted retirement, lost their home...
The cancer survivor or diabetic or whatever you can't get insurance again...

They deserve more then these smug politicians who have their reelection and their lobbyist money and their false sense of superiority

So to be kind and fair...lets shout about them not getting their free insurance. They seem to like it when we shout, they'll call us passionate patriots...right?

[Double T]

4. Sen. DeMented, we want to take away your privileges as well as your rights.

Who the hell elects these guys???

[GoCubsGo]

15. RE: Who the hell elects these guys???

Unfortunately, the vast majority of South Carolinians think just like DeMented. I just got through reading a comment in the local fishwrap from some allegedly "Libertarian" asshole, who claims that "If you want health care, go out and buy it. I shouldn't have to pay for the poor, the lazy, and the ignorant." In other words, I got mine, screw you. This state is a shithole.

[RagAss]

17. The hate ridden south.

[and-justice-for-all]

5. DeMint can go fuck himself...nt

[opihimoimoi]

7. DeMent is Nuts...he is a prime GOP Presidential wannabe and he sez these things?

What a loser....

[iceman66]

8. Is there no Democrat

in South Carolina popular enough to mount a credible challenge to this shithead?

I'm sure there would be no shortage of potential donors.

[GoCubsGo]

20. Only one or two, but...

Fritz Hollings is way too old, and Charleston mayor Joe Riley probably could do it. However, his membership in the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition would certainly draw the ire of the plethora of gun nuts here.

I want to vomit every time I think about how this sack of shit is occupying Fritz's Senate seat.

[Honeycombe8]

9. Therein lies the ideological difference, I guess. My view is that BASIC care is a right.

Would you seriously look at a person with pneumonia and tell him, "I'm sorry. You didn't plan your life well. So you don't have insurance, and you're not poor enough for Medicaid. If you had the $, you could get treated. But since you're too poor to pay but not poor enuf for Medicaid, you'll have to suffer through your illness with no medication or professional care. Hope you don't die. Good luck, my man."

That's ridiculous. And hey...Medicaid ain't what it's cracked up to be. Many providers won't accept it. In smaller towns and cities, those who would qualify for it, go without care, until something big happens and they land in an ER. That happened to my sister. Turned out that she had out of control diabetes, among other things. One thing lead to another, until she ultimately had a massive stroke and ended up in a nursing home at the age of 53, where she will be the rest of her life. At taxpayer's expense.

Would things have been different if she had had availability of doctor visits? I can't be sure, but I think so. IT WOULD HAVE COST US, THE TAXPAYER, LESS IN THE LONG RUN FOR HER TO GET REGULAR HEALTH CARE. Plus, although her lack of insurance was her own fault, she is a human being. She deserves at least basic health care.

[saltpoint]

10. It seems to me that the impulse to heal greatly eclipses the

demographic index of the healee.

DeMint, IMO, is not speaking for healers, is not speaking for the dentist trying to treat someone whose tooth aches in pain, not speaking for the pediatrician who treats young patients with skill and compassion, not speaking for the night shift nurses in hospitals trying to keep patients alive and comfortable.

What I hear in DeMInt's remarks is, "If you aren't in MY income bracket, proper health care is a privilege."

One of those night nurses, or the parents of one of those young children, should slap Senator DeMint's arrogant face.

[LeftishBrit]

11. What a MONSTER.

[Vinca]

12. As an uninsured tax payer, I'd like to take his privilege away.

[OHdem10]

13. DeMint is saying what his party believes. Why do you think the GOP

is fighting Health Care Reform so vigorously. They do not
believe there is a right to health care. This is what makes
the fight so contentious. No one has a right to Health care
and therefore you cannot take from one to give to another.
They will fight to their death over this.

[QC]

14. Come on, everyody! We just need to reach out to him!

GROUP HUG!!!

[NYC_SKP]

16. That is NOT the argument we want to make, people.

We could go back and forth FOREVER on whether it's a right or a privilege.

Maybe we can add that to the endless debate on the abortion or second amendment. :sarcasm:

We need to stress these points:

Health Care Reform is Cost Effective.

Health Care Reform is More Efficient.

Health Care Reform will make America More Productive and Competitive.

THESE are arguments we can make and can WIN with Conservatives and Republicans.


:patriot:

[OwnedByFerrets]

18. Typical neocon bullshit

[LiberalFighter]

19. If he doesn't believe it is a right then he against the Constitution.

[Telly Savalas]

21. An interstate highway system is a privilege, not a right.

[quaker bill]

23. And he as a member of god's "chosen"

gets the privledge for free. It is all part of the "C" street thing.