“Health care is a privilege. For some people it’s a right, but for everyone it’s not necessarily a right.”
–Representative Zach Wamp, Tennessee, on MSNBC

Of course, I have some choice words I’d personally like to say to Representative Wamp, but I think I’ll let the Universal Declaration of Human Rights say it for me.

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Article 25, UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Yes, in the United States right now, health care is a privilege. It is a privilege for those who can afford it and a privilege to those who are currently healthy. Here are a few health care facts for Representative Wamp to consider:

*Although nearly 46 million Americans are uninsured, the United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations, and those countries provide health insurance to all their citizens.

*Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance in the United States have been rising four times faster on average than workers’ earnings since 1999.

*Every 30 seconds in the United States someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem.

*About 1.5 million families lose their homes to foreclosure every year due to unaffordable medical costs.
–source

But wait … he goes on (and on, and on):

“The 45 million people who don’t have health insurance, about half of them choose not to have health insurance.”
–Representative Zach Wamp, Tennessee, on MSNBC

Perhaps he should do some research rather than pulling statistics out of whatever orifice he pulled his false statistics from. I suggest he begin by reading some studies, like this one by The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Of the uninsured who are employed, 64% aren’t offered an employer-sponsored healthcare plans. Only 20% of uninsured working adults who are offered employer-sponsored healthcare plans decline the coverage, and they often do so because they are unable to afford their share of the premiums. And then, of course, there are the unemployed, the sick, and the disabled who have no access to any potential employer-sponsored healthcare plans at all. Where Mr. Wamp came up with his 50% of uninsured people choosing not to have health insurance, I do not know, but it doesn’t jive with any studies or statistics I have been able to find, unless he means having to choose between having a roof over one’s head, food in one’s belly, and functioning utilities or having health insurance is some kind of choice people make willingly.

Since Mr. Wamp seems to feel that healthcare is a privilege, then I suppose he wouldn’t mind if we the people, the ones who pay for his nice elected-official-style healthcare plan, decide we don’t want to do so anymore. Let him pay the exorbitant fees for buying private, non-employer sponsored healthcare, or let him sit at home and hope he feels better tomorrow because going to the doctor isn’t in the budget (and never will be) … as so many of the rest of us do.

My pro-life voting record has been solid throughout my 14-years in the House. While my party does not control the legislative agenda, I will continue to fight against the loss of innocent life.
–Representative Zach Wamp

Yes, the Republicans … so very pro-life, until you take your first breath. Then you are on your own, baby!

But Representative Wamp does agree with me that dying bees are a serious issue. Too bad he doesn’t think dying humans are important too.