If health care is a right shouldn't car insurance be a right also?

Given that there are thousands on the road without car insurance, apparently that is a common belief--after all, after they crash into you it was YOUR responsibility to have uninsured motorist coverage.

I like how economist Walter Williams explains a right, because this is how our Founders understood it:
"At least in the standard historical usage of the term, a right is something that exists simultaneously among people. A right confers no obligation on another. For example, the right to free speech is something we all possess. My right to free speech imposes no obligation upon another except that of non-interference. Similarly, I have a right to travel freely. That right imposes no obligation upon another except that of non-interference.

Contrast those rights to the supposed right to decent housing or medical care. Those supposed rights do confer obligations upon others. There is no Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy. If you don't have money to pay for decent housing or medical services, and the government gives you a right to those services, where do you think the money comes from?"
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=2005

Having said that, there IS an obligation on the part of government to: (1) follow the Constitution, which they rarely do and (2) apply the rule of law equally across the board, which they also fail to do.

The ridiculous costs of health care in the US are solely the result of bad governmental policies AND their refusal to apply contract law and anti-trust laws to the handful of big insurers who unfairly dominate and control the practice of medicine in the US. That does need to be resolved.

Solution:
I want QUALITY, ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE health care for all.
That means preventative care (physical with follow up). Real medication (no Medicare "donut holes" the really ill are screwed again.) No bogus ridiculously low "caps" on needed medical procedures. No abuse of the ER. No paying for the silly with the sniffles to go to the doc for free. No more bankruptcies over medical bills. I want THIS plan that ends abuse of the taxpayer, takes the burden off employers, provides price transparency, and ends the rip-off of the US taxpayer at the hands of greedy insurance CEOs (which has been repeatedly documented).
http://www.booklocker.com/books/3068.html
Read the PDF, not the blurb, for the bulk of the plan. Book is searchable on Amazon.com
Cassandra Nathan's Save America, Save the World

Evidence re: insurers includes:
From a doc whose job was denying LEGITIMATE claims to make the company more money:
Linda Peeno, MD testified that SHE had often denied treatment JUST to save the insurance company money (http://www.thenationalcoalition.org/DrPeenotestimony.html)

The corruption of the HANDFUL of large insurers is appalling and the government is impotent in resolving this issue http://www.newsmax.com/medicine_men/medical_insurance/2008/01/03/61543.html

Hospitals especially and some docs have become so aggressive about medical bills that that bankruptcy issue is likely to get worse http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/nov2007/db20071120_397008.htm

The special treatment of insurance companies is unacceptable. No other industry gets the multiple breaks they do. Jamie Court's Making a Killing book is an eye-opener (http://www.makingakilling.org/contents.html Why should it be that when a person's insurance comes via his employer (as most peoples' do) that the insurer has such protections for refusal to pay for treatment the patient needs, can't afford without insurance, and has reason to believe IS covered results in the patient's death? Such a suit can't be brought if the person dies; if the person lives and is in a world of hurt, all the patient can recover is the cost of the denied procedure. Talk about an incentive to NOT provide treatment!

Furthermore:
"the vast majority of health insurance policies are through for-profit stock companies. They are in the process of â€œshedding livesâ€ as some term it when â€œundesirableâ€ customers are lost through various means, including raising premiums and co-pays and decreasing benefits (Britt, â€œHealth insurers getting bigger cut of medical dollars,â€ 15 October 2004, investors.com). That same Investors Business Daily article from 2004 noted the example of Anthem, another insurance company. They said the top five executives (not just the CEO) received an average of an 817 percent increase in compensation between 2000 and 2003. The CEO, for example, had his compensation go from $2.5 million to $25 million during that time period. About $21 million of that was in stock payouts, the article noted.

A 2006 article, â€œU.S. Health Insurance: More Market Domination, More CEO Compensationâ€
(hcrenewal.blogspot.com) notes that in 56 percent of 294 metropolitan areas one insurer â€œcontrols more than half the business in health maintenance organization and preferred provider networks underwriting." In addition to having the most enrollees, they also are the biggest purchasers of health care and set the price and coverage terms. â€œâ€™The results is double-digit premium increases from 2001 and 2004â€”peaking with a 13.9 percent jump in 2003â€”soaring well above inflation and wages increases.â€™" Where is all that money going? The article quotes a Wall Street Journal article looking at the compensation of the CEO of UnitedHealth Group. His salary and bonus is $8 million annually. He has benefits such as the use of a private jet. He has stock-option fortunes worth $1.6 billion."
--Save America, Save the World by Cassandra Nathan pp. 127-128