Why a Right to Health Care

Q. Why do we need to amend the state constitution?

A. We need to establish this right to health care, just as the right to primary and secondary education were established in our state and 48 other states in those State Constitutions. The reason for this amendment rather than a law or policy is similar, also, to the rationale for the right to education. We cannot allow this need of the people of this state to be conditional on political winds, and the yearly rounds of budgetary cuts. If we don't establish this principle the initial design will be a compromise that will assure regular care for 90 or 95% of us, but who is volunteering to be left out?

Q. Don't we need to have it in law, precisely because each year it has to fit into the necessities of the state's budget?

A. We know there are adequate funds available, we have every right to expect this vital need be met. Every other industrialized nation meets the health care needs for all its peoples for about half the cost per person that we spend 1. Whatever changes and efficiencies are necessary to get everyone regular appropriate care, let's make those. We can still do this in a grand and generous North Carolina style. By making the constitutional commitment first we are demanding that the plan deliver on the care we ALL need.

Q. I'm for everyone getting needed care, but why do we need to establish this as a right?

A. So you would like it to be a privilege for some? And who should it be a privilege for? The healthiest? The wealthiest? Who would you like to leave out of the health care system, even though 65% of the health care costs are paid out of the public's coffers? How else can we force a plan to be designed which will include everyone in the state, not the 90% or 95% who are the easiest and cheapest to insure?

1Health spending per capita in the US was over 90% higher than in many other countries that would be considered to be global economic competitors. With over 15% of gross domestic product (GDP) devoted to health, the US is committing a substantially greater share of the economy to the health sector. The mean per capita expenditure in 2003 for 18 other OECD nations (for which data could be collected) was $2958 as opposed to the $6711 per capita in the USA (2006 OECD data)