Over on the West Coast, The California Nurses Association is demanding for state lawmakers to revive SB 652, a bill that would transform California into a single-payer health care systemCalifornia Healthline reports the details in this morning’s news:

A few hundred of the union’s members and supporters, dressed in cherry-red sweatshirts and hats, crowded the north steps of the Capitol on Wednesday morning, pumping their fists and chanting “Everybody in! Nobody out!”

Inside the committee room, the hearing, which started at 1 p.m., stretched into the evening as nurses dominated the public comment period. Throughout the testimony, they scoffed and mock-coughed at comments they disagreed with.

They promised to be back with more noise, more rallies and more pressure until single-payer makes it through the legislature.

Advocates for a single-payer system strongly believe that health care is a human right, not a commodity. But within such a system that is financed with taxpayer dollars and solely administered by the government, people lose their rights to the health care they need or want. Instead, the “right” to health care boils down to the government dictating the types of health care services and treatments it is willing to pay for.

My colleague, Roy Cordato, has written an excellent article about the universal human right to health care. According to his words,  there ain’t no such thing.