Health care debate

For the most part, the debate over ObamaCare didn't explicitly deal with "the rights angle." ObamaCare's mandate was often described as a "responsibility." But the notion of health care as a right didn't exactly go away either.

Like the Clinton plan, ObamaCare attempts to achieve universal coverage by requiring individuals to obtain insurance. There are no government-backed cooperatives in ObamaCare, but there are government-run insurance marketplaces that regulate participating insurers. And thanks to the law's various Medicare payment reforms, which are supposed to create incentives for doctors and other providers to change their behavior, the new health law also ends up giving the government more influence over the practice of medicine.

In other words, the rights angle-and the belief that all unmet medical needs must be served, no matter what-lives on as the subtext of the health policy debate. In March, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius argued that catastrophic health plans didn't count as real insurance, because they only cover the biggest medical expenses. And in August, Medicare chief Marilyn Tevenner told Congress that insurance isn't "true insurance" if it's not sufficiently comprehensive.