Why Should Health Insurance Be A Right? 
An excellent question that touches on both philosophy and current politics in our nation . In the context of the rights enumerated in the U.S constitution and the natural rights of man historically there is no right to health insurance . In the grand sweep of human history health insurance is a late arrival on the world stage and mankind existed without it for millennia . As health insurance is only a financial mechanism designed to transfer risk by spreading it out over a larger pool of payers it is difficult for me to construe this as an inherent right . By that argument we should all have the right to car or homeowners or pet insurance . This is where I think many people make the mistake of confusing health care with health insurance . Health care , however primitive , has been around for thousands of years and yet Ibelieve most objective thinking people would agree that there has never been an intrinsic right to health care itself . Health insurance , in my opinion , should be viewed as , at best , a social obligation that an individual owes to their society to eliminate or at least minimize the burdens they might place on their fellow citizens and at least what a person should do in their own self interest to protect themselves against serious illness or injury . But whether it is a social obligation or an act of self interest it clearly does not fall into the same category as freedom of speech , religion , to peaceably assemble or petition the government for redress of grievances . To me , it seems that the argument that health insurance is a right is merely anattempt by some -LRB- however well intentioned -RRB- to construct a system that by its very nature centralizes control over the individual and may actually impinge upon their true rights by taking from some to give to others . An ever expanding social contract leads to ever expanding expense which serves to distort the functioning of a society built upon a premise of self reliance first and charity second . 