Representative Zack Wamp (if you’re thinking to yourself, “that sounds like the evil Congressperson who cartoonishly tries to build a defense contractor’s new factory on top of an orphanage”, then you’re right) has declared that healthcare is a privilege.  Except when it’s a right.  Which it is for some people.  But not for everyone.  Because apparently rights work that way now.

Then he added, “Listen, health care is a privilege” (about 3:09 into the video.)

MSNBC Anchor Tamron Hall interjected. “It’s a privilege? Health care? If you have cancer right now, do you see it as a privilege to get some treatment?” she asked.

“I was just about to finish to say, that for some people it’s a right,” Wamp said, “but for everyone, frankly, it’s not necessarily a right. Some people choose not to pay.”

So, hold on.  It’s a right for people who can’t pay for it, but a privilege for those who allegedly can, but don’t. 

Asked who is not entitled to health care, Wamp responded, “An employee who rejects the health care provided by their employer ’cause they don’t want any of the money deducted from” their pay check. He again insisted, “Half the people today choose to remain uninsured. Half of them don’t have any choice, but half of them choose to, what’s called, ‘Go naked.’ And just take a risk of getting sick. They end up in the emergency room, costing you and me a whole lot more money. How many illegal immigrants are in this country today, getting our health care? Gobs of ‘em.”

I know people who do this.  And for them, the major consideration is not some perceived invincibility on their part, or a foolish decision to go without a safety net.  The major consideration is that they’re offered shitty, expensive insurance that would actually leave them worse off under almost any imaginable medical emergency due to the fact that the premiums would take away from their ability to pay a super-high deductible or uncovered procedures.  It’s a rational economic decision - why pay now for the privilege of having to pay later anyway?

But it’s good to know that the right to healthcare is stripped away when you have any ability whatsoever to buy any insurance, no matter how terrible.  Likewise, I think the right to bear arms should be limited to those people without the ability to defend themselves in any other way, including but not limited to swinging, stabbing, screaming or telephoning someone nearby to do one of those things.  The rights of coma patients to carry firearms is inalienable, by gum!