Most likely stemming from an understanding that health care, like many other things, is labor. It requires work, and it's not free. You have to pay for the labor of someone else; you have no 'right' to the labor of someone else without their say. You shouldn't even expect to have the 'right' to the labor of someone else, no questions asked. Likewise, the cost of that labor should not be arbitrarily decided by outside parties without any consideration as to what was involved or what other people are willing to pay. So, in that sense, a lot of Americans would say that 'health care is not a right'. A more accurate term would be 'responsibility'.

"The controlling of medical costs in countries such as Britain through rationing, and the health consequences thereof are legendary," the article said. "The stories of people dying on a waiting list or being denied altogether read like a horror movie script."

The article's author went on to assert that "people such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."