Disclaimer: I am NOT an expert on Jefferson, I just play one on TV.
While researching this morning the origin of a dubious Jefferson quote (it was too conveniently relevant to modern times... maybe I'll do a post on that sometime!), I found a really nice website that has a lot of information on Jefferson's writings:
In addition, I stumbled upon a comment in a forum where a writer suggested that Jefferson would have been in favor of some sort of Universal Health care system:
This concept was intriguing, because the founding fathers are always lifted up as super-human beings and their words are studied almost like scripture. So, I thought, I would just scratch Jefferson's writings lightly on the surface to see if I could find a few excerpts where we can study his views on the individual v. collective rights argument.
Here are some quotes, with my comments. I am extremely interested in your perspective.
Do you consider caring for our fellow citizens at a basic level a moral obligation?
"Political interest [can] never be separated in the long run from moral right."
--Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1806. FE 8:477
"We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals,
our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties."
--Thomas Jefferson: 2nd Inaugural, 1805. ME 3:375
"What is true of every member of the society, individually, is true of
them all collectively; since the rights of the whole can be no more than the sum of
the rights of the individuals."
--Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789.
Jefferson wrote extensively on happiness, as well all know. Is happiness really an inalienable right? What is your definition of happiness? What was Jefferson's? Is it possible to have either form of happiness when you are dying of cancer because you cannot afford the treatment?
"The Giver of life gave it for happiness and not for wretchedness."
--Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1782. ME 4:196, Papers 6:186
And finally, since I know that the everyone's main concern about Universal Health Care is taxation. Jefferson, thankfully, wrote a lot about taxation. He found it a necessary function of government, and warned of waste, of course. In addition, he was a supporter of Americans not being taxed by a government that does not represent us. I hear comments and protests about taxes, shouting how some don't pay taxes and how it's not fair that some have more of a tax burden than others. Here is a Jefferson quote for that subject, since it is really relevant to the health care discussion:
"Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a
certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise."
--Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1785. ME 19:18, Papers 8:682
I'm ready!
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