“Americans have choices. They’ve gotta make a choice. Maybe rather than getting that new iPhone they just love and they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest it in their own health care. They’ve gotta make decisions themselves,” Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told Alisyn Camerota on CNN’s “New Day” on Tuesday. (source: GOP health care plan is a ruse)

Comment: Healthcare is a necessity and not a choice. The American representative’s seemingly snide remarks are in reality a byproduct of the rotten Capitalist ideology, in which amassing of profits trump the basic need of healthcare for all of society’s citizens. This stark reality has resulted in a system that puts those who are most in need of medical assistance directly in the exploitative hands of hospitals, insurance, and drug companies—all tainted with capitalistic greed. In the US alone in 2014, more than 17% of the GDP expenditure was related to healthcare, while being unable to pay its cost is the leading cause of bankruptcies—even among those who are insured.

In contrast, Islam, a unique system from the Creator of Mankind sent down to manage both the affairs of individuals and society clearly lays down the basic needs that have to be guaranteed for every human being, and makes the ruler (Khaleefah) responsible for ensuring their fulfillment. The Prophet SAW said: “Each of you is a guardian and is responsible for those whom he is in charge of. So the ruler is a guardian and is responsible for his subjects…” [Bukhari and Muslim].

Healthcare is from one of the basic needs, which has to be provided by the Khilafah as was affirmed by the actions of the Prophet SAW who as the ruler in Madinah, when given a gift of a doctor, assigned him in service to the Muslims. History testifies to the fact that when Islam reigned as a complete system it saw tremendous advancements made in the medical field, state of the art public hospitals established in several of its cities: Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Cordova, Samarqand, and even mobile dispensaries to provide for the medical needs in remote areas.