There are a number of Americans who oppose Health Care Reform on “Constitutional Grounds”.  They claim that the US Constitution prohibits the government from administering a health care system.

I’ve spent a good deal of time over the past few months re-reading the Constitution, as a result of the rise of the Tea Party movement.  However, I can’t find anything in the Constitution that supports their claims of unconstitutional behavior with regards to health care.

On the contrary, after careful consideration,  it’s become clear to me that the Constitution actually supports government run health care!

The Preamble of the Constitution states that one of its goals is to ‘promote the general welfare”.  Section 8 of Article 1, in like fashion, gives power to Congress to “provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States”.

Dictionary.com defines the word “welfare” in this way:  “Well-doing or well-being in any respect; the enjoyment of health and the common blessings of life”.  Applying this definition to the constitution shows that the government is tasked, and given the power, to provide health care for Americans.

Additionally, the Declaration of Independence states that we are all entitled to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.

Tens of thousands of Americans die every year simply because they have no health care.  So where is their right to “life”?  And if you’re sick and cannot get treated, how can you be happy?  So denying health care to Americans is also potentially denying them two of the three rights mentioned above.

So both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence agree that the government has the obligation and the power to provide health care for US citizens.

I challenge any person to prove to me why my interpretation of these two national documents is incorrect.

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This entry was posted by Nick Bulka on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 5:14 pm You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.