The September 7, 2008 New York Times has printed my LTE on health care “reform” in Massachusetts, responding to their August 30, 2008 editorial, “The Massachusetts Way“. They edited it slightly from the version I submitted, but kept the essential meaning intact, including the concept that “health care is not a right”.

It is the 7th (final) letter on this page:

To the Editor:

Far from being a “success,” Massachusetts health care “reform” has cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars more than anticipated and created long waits for care.

The Massachusetts system is just socialized medicine in a new guise. It is no coincidence that the long waits for care in the state resemble the long bread lines in the Soviet Union.

The fundamental problem with the Massachusetts system (or any system of “universal health care”) is that it erroneously treats health care as a “right.” There is no such thing as “right” to a good or service that must be created by others — that’s just state-sanctioned theft or slavery. The problems in Massachusetts are the inevitable result.

Paul Hsieh
Sedalia, Colo., Aug. 30, 2008

The writer is the co-founder of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine.