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Tribune: Has Labrador found a basic right to health care?

In his editorial today, Opinion Editor Marty Trillhaase of the Lewiston Tribune comments:

When Congressman Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, told a Meridian town hall forum “I do not believe that health care is a basic right,” he was wrong.

He failed to mention the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act of 1986. That Reagan-era law is the reason anyone in the United States has a “basic right” to walk into virtually any hospital emergency room and get help.

Of course, such treatment is expensive - especially if the patient puts off seeking preventive care earlier when his ailment is less serious - and it offers little in the way of continuing therapy.

So the question is not whether the right to health care exists, but how to manage it - and how to pay the costs. More here .

* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "Huckleberries Online." Read all stories from this blog