Washington Free Beacon reporter Elizabeth Harrington appeared Monday on the Fox Business Network, where she said that health care is not a fundamental right.
Host Charles Payne began the segment by playing a clip from his interview earlier with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.), during which the lawmaker discussed his proposal for a "Jimmy Kimmel Test" for pre-existing conditions in the Senate version of the Republican health care bill.
"For premiums, that's a huge thing for Middle America, and at the same time achieve what I call the Jimmy Kimmel Test, which is that if somebody has a pre-existing condition, would she have the coverage for herself or her family member that would allow her to get the care that she needs?" Cassidy said of his proposal named after comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who spoke publicly about his newborn son's heart condition last week.
Payne followed up by saying that Cassidy's comments underscore a new America where health care might be a "right."
Harrington praised Cassidy for being adept at taking a compelling story in the media, designed to make Republicans look bad, and flipping it back on the other side to show that they are implementing those policies in their bill. She then discussed whether health care is a fundamental right and said that Republicans have lost the argument with the passage of Barack Obama's landmark health care law, Obamacare.
"The only popular part of the law is the pre-existing conditions–you have to cover them now," Harrington said. "They really have to build that in to whatever Republican plan they want to move forward, but I still don't think fundamentally health care is a right."
"If you think about all the rights that are guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, those are all freedoms from government. Government can't do things to you. They can't take away your speech. They can't take away your right to practice religion. It's not about what the government can give you in the form of religion," Harrington added.