~> > So, no, I don't dismiss it out of hand.

~> I'm glad to see you changed your position.

No change.

~> > I don't doubt their education, but I also try to avoid blindly following
~> > people just because they are considered "experts." 
Especially when 
they
~> > publish articles that include political claims such as the belief that
~> > everyone has a RIGHT to medical care, and when two of them co-found 
an
~> > organization to lobby for a single-payer system.
 
~> You doubt that people who teach at Harvard are educated?

Hmmm.  I say "I don't doubt their education," and you respond that I do 
doubt it?  I'll go with MY answer.

~> It's difficult to become a professor at Harvard. 
~> One must have the correct credentials which usually involves a PhD or at 
~> least a Masters degree if one is teaching undergrads.

Wilper is a physician.  He teaches at the University of Washington.  He was 
for a time on a fellowship at Harvard, not in a faculty position.  I don't know 
whether or not he has any expertise in statistics.  And, just for the sake of 
completeness, I doubt that Harvard Medical School has undergrads in its 
student body.

~> You mentioned the 'right' to medical care.  You have a right to the fire 
~> department when your house catches on fire.  You have the right to eat.  
You 
~> have the right to enjoy your family.  You have the right to medical care.

Fire protection is not a "right" at all.  It is a government
service which, if it is 
provided by some governmental body as part of an arrangement between 
government and citizens, should be provided equally to all.  The other three 
are not rights at all, but are freedoms.  If I had a "right" to
eat, that would 
entail someone having a responsibility to give me food.

~> By your post, one would assume that you are saying one doesn't have 
the 
~> right to medical care.  I don't assume anything, so I ask you for a simple - 
~> yes or no - clarification please.  If the answer is no, I'd be interested in 
~> knowing why you believe people don't have the right to medical care.

In the interest of brevity, I'd say for the same reasons that people do not 
have a "right" to food.  If you have a small vegetable garden in your back 
yard, I do not have the right to eat the vegetables.  I do have the right to 
ask for the food, and I have the right to offer you something of value if you 
are willing to make a mutually voluntary exchange for your food.  But since no 
one HAS to feed me, the food is not a "right."

Interesting, though, that some of the countries that have largely government-
run medical care systems actually deny their citizens that more basic right to 
seek medical care in a mutually voluntary exchange between supplier and 
consumer.  Some of them forbid patients getting medical care outside the 
system by paying out-of-pocket for care that the government says IT won't 
provide as part of its medical program.  If medical care were really a
"right" in 
those countries, government bureaucrats would not be PERMITTED to 
say "no" to a procedure.

 
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