Health care a right?

Ironcross at "Brutality of Reason" posed a question about health care as a right. I commented, and I'm reposting my thoughts on that subject here.

In our society we have no shortage of people willing to whine about their 'rights.' I'm all for talking about 'rights' as long as we can include talk about our obligations. I think our obligations to to each other and our society/nation/tribe distill down to a few simple concepts.

Do you like living in your Country? If it needs you, answer the call.

A parent is obligated to grow (GROW! - the verb,) their children, like a greenhouse for future citizens.

A citizen sees a crime in progress; DO something about it.

Don't be freeloader if you can help it. Pay your own way so those that truly need help can get it. If you see someone freeloading unjustly, DO something about it.

You see busted glass on the road where some flipping drunk smashed his bottle, pick it up, kick it off the road. Lucky you didn't drive over it -don't leave it there for someone else.

You become a member of your community. Join a church, the Lions, the Knights of Columbus, boyscouts, -whatever. If your life up to now is shaping up so that your only legacy is an obituary that says "all he/she ever did was turn food into shit" move to North Korea. They need more shit.

Our society still works because enough people still live by the conventions that allow our society to function. You obey the law and follow the 10 commandments. You expect your grocer to be honest and your Financial Planner not to abscond with your dough. You expect the police to catch the bad guys. You expect most of your politicians to be assholes, but what the hell... Two out of three ain't bad.
But seriously, One of the 3rd world's most insurmountable obstacles to peace and prosperity is that graft and corruption rule their governments, and too many mullahs think the rules don't apply to them.

A guy I respected once told me that there were two kinds of "Rights."
-"Inalienable rights,"
and
-"Bullshit rights."

The simple way to tell the difference was to apply the following litmus test:

Will your exercising this "right" cause a loss or an infringement of someone else's rights?

By this litmus test a whole host of so-called rights are revealed as bullshit. The right to freedom from religion, which silences believers and restricts them from public life. The right to live with the (imaginary) peace of mind some people think they'll have if their town has an ordinance banning private gun ownership. The right to Gay Marriage, which undermines the basic unit of our society, the family. The right to abortion, which steals the right to life, liberty, and happiness of BOTH the mother and her dead baby.

Likewise, the so-called right to health care can and will lead to infringements on those who will be forced to pay into it, and on everyone else who will lose their (heh) right to choose. In Canada, well-funded (by taxes) supporters of the tax-supported medical plan zealously attack anyone who tries to provide medical services outside the government rationing system.
I do mean a rationing system. I am every day amazed at the number of ignorant people I meet, who think the government's money-supply is limitless. Once you reduce health care to a single national HMO (the government) the ONLY way to limit overhead will be by rationing. They won't be able to limit access to services- it'll be a right. Therefore the only choice left to the government will be waiting lists.
Need a heart-bypass? Cancer surgery? MRI? In Canada the waiting lists are months long.

So much for your right to life...