Here is a perennial “gotcha” from the MAGA orc playbook:
The answer is threefold and therefore too complex for the MAGA mind to comprehend. But I will share it with people not blinded by MAGA ideology and therefore capable of thinking:
1: They aren’t getting free health care, nor will they when Dem demands are met. You are either stupid and believe a lie or evil and knowingly spread lies.
2: The correct question is, why are you busting a blood vessel about imaginary poor people stealing from you when real rich people are actually stealing from you?
3: The proof of Part 2 is that the rich have trained the suckers in the Cult to spend so much time fretting that the poor are getting free health care that they never ask, “Why am I not getting free health care?”
“First of all, universal healthcare does not mean government-run healthcare. That’s one way that universal healthcare can be provided, but it isn’t the only way. And it is not my opinion that we must be for universal healthcare. If you share the Catholic faith, you must be for universal healthcare. And as American citizens, we have signed the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, which makes healthcare a right as well.
But just to ground this in Catholic teaching, let me just quote a few of our bishops and popes writing about this. Here is what the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said in their Framework for Comprehensive Healthcare Reform in June of 1993:
Every person has a right to adequate healthcare. This right flows from the sanctity of human life and the dignity that belongs to all human persons who are made in the image and likeness of God.
That is the U.S. bishops, writing as early as 1993, and they keep repeating that position. I have dozens of documents in which they continue to repeat that position.
If you look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church, also published in 1993, and you look at paragraph #1908 it says:
The common good requires the social well-being and development of the group itself. Development is the epitome of all social duties. Certainly, it is the proper function of authority to arbitrate, in the name of the common good, between various particular interests; but it should make accessible to each what is needed to lead a truly human life: food, clothing, health, work, education and culture, suitable information, the right to establish a family, and so on.
And why is that kind of list in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the sure norm for the teaching of the faith? Well, as early as 1963, in the encyclical letter of Pope St. John XXIII, Pacem in Terris, we have the teaching:
But first We must speak of man’s rights. Man has the right to live. He has the right to bodily integrity and to the means necessary for the proper development of life, particularly food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest, and, finally, the necessary social services.
The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which is for social teaching what the Catechism is for doctrinal teaching, also says that it is a human right to basic healthcare.
I could go on and on. But this is one of the things that does frustrate me about some who think they can choose between the social teaching of the Church. These are not optional teachings. And if you’re not for universal healthcare, that means you want some people not to have access to healthcare. This is an odd position to have if you call yourself pro-life.
Now, I’m not a politician. That is up to individual politicians to figure out, and individual members of a society to figure out, how to make sure that every person has ready access to the basic human right of healthcare. It doesn’t have to be government-run. In fact, I wouldn’t necessarily want it to be fully government-run.
But you can’t say you’re pro-life and not believe in the basic fundamental right to healthcare. This is one of the things that is part of the Catholic Social Teaching. You can’t get mad when politicians dissent on life issues, when you yourself dissent on other Catholic Social Teachings.
It’s part of the Gospel, and it’s a beautiful thing. If only we would live Catholic Social Teaching, it would truly serve the common good.”
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7 Responses
If you’re a Christian/Catholic, why would you want another human being to suffer? Is it zero-sum, where you believe someone else being treated takes something away from you, or your “tribe?” So then where is the imitation of Christ, where you believe we give up something precious to help someone else, even someone we don’t think deserves it, the way Christ died for us when we were still in our sins…
Even those of us who are citizens and have health insurance are experiencing an erosion of our health care benefits. My copay’s doubled from last year and prescription costs have escalated.
The health care insurance companies routinely deny benefits for various procedures.
HHS Secretary RFK Jr seems to think that we can forgo vaccinations and medications, but just do push-ups and we will be fine. The American people are losing ground on life expectancy and we are 50th in the world for that, but don’t worry, the top 3 billionaires have a combined greater net worth than the bottom 50% of the American people. The billionaires are picking our pockets and what do we worry about? Nonsense issues like transgender sports.
Great, clear post about this. Utterly refreshing, and your summation of the MAGA lies blinding folks to the question, “Why am I NOT getting free health care?” hits the nail on the head. Thank you!
I am not convinced that a Federal Government Bureacracy is the best way to run healthcare. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. Smarter people than me can figure that out.
But I am 100% convinced that healthcare should NOT be run by for-profit corporations whose primary stated goal is to “maximize shareholder value.” That is beyond a travesty. It is sheer idiocy.
The other issue that ties to this, is that healthcare in this country is largely administered by insurance companies that are also for-profit corporations. Meaning, that the health care product AND the administration of that product must maximize shareholder value. Not provide the best outcome under a set of circumstances. Not work efficiently. Not serve healthcare consumers, which in the end is everybody.
The reason things cost so much and run so poorly is that there are two profit-making structures on top of the delivery of health care. It’s bad for everyone.
And a semantic nitpick: It is NOT free healthcare. There is no such thing as “free” healthcare. It is a matter of HOW we pay for it. Is it every man for himself or a duty of the common good? I vote for the latter.
Years ago, when I was more conservative than I am now (Mea Culpa, Mark) I heard an interview with some professor, who argued that the US would never have universal health care, because the most disadvantaged white people would rather do without than accept black people having access. Meaning — “those” people would get something “for free”.
At the time I thought it was silly liberal claptrap. And here it is back in the daily conversation. OK, “those people” are now “illegals”, but the point remains. I think I’m better than some class of human beings, and would rather do without than see them have it.