It appears that single-payer (read: government-run) health care is back on the Beltway agenda, and that concerns me. When I was growing up, back in the dawn of recorded history, there were three things that were deemed essential for survival: food, clothing and shelter. It was the responsibility of the individual to provide these things; they were not a right or an entitlement.

President Barack Obama counsels that we must take responsibility for our lives, yet now comes the notion that "health care" is a universal right. If this be the case, what of the three necessities? Without the three necessities, health care is irrelevant, since one would not survive to need it. Therefore, if government is to provide universal health care as a right, would it not be incumbent on government to provide the three basic necessities as well? It is a short trip from there to: "To each according to his needs and from each according to his abilities."

Is this what we want?

Thomas Hurd

Park City