223. Is Health Care a Right?

Not a subject of debate, that having been decided with the first laws preventing emergency rooms from denying service, and confirmed by republicans who now say, "repeal and replace," instead of the previous, "repeal."

But how far, if at all, does that right go beyond the ER?

Amber is 24 weeks pregnant.  With each visit she requests an ultrasound. She also has regular massages for pregnancy-related back pain and weekly sees an "obstetric chiropractor," all covered by her work-based health insurance. 

Is health care a limited resource, a health care pie as it were? Does Amber's bigger piece mean a smaller piece for someone else? Obamacare gives (I almost said "gave" but we're not there yet) a piece of the health care pie to millions who never had pie. Detractors feel their pieces are thereby diminished. 


Somehow, in this squabble for the imagined last piece of pie, the humanity of it all has been lost.