Ideal # 3: Everyone has a right to healthcare
- Where does one draw the line between healthcare that is a right and healthcare that is not a right?
- Who decides which procedures and treatments will be provided as a right?
- How much is cost a factor in determining what is and is not a healthcare right?
- How much do other factors determine how much cost is a factor? For instance, how much does the probability of positive outcomes impact how much cost the right will bear? Or the seriousness of the condition?
- What kinds of positive outcomes are within the right? And what determines the degree of positive outcome that falls within the right? For instance, if pain relief – how much pain relief given cost and probability of effectiveness? Or, if improved mental health, how much mental health is enough?
- If a condition is chronic and incurable but not terminal, how much treatment for that condition falls within the right?
- How much preventive healthcare falls within the right?
The questions here are mostly about where you draw the line. Moral to this story: there is always a line. Moral posturing is always easier than implementing policy.