Debate over health care is more than slogans, placards

We could dismiss the rally as a passing fancy the way Occupy Wall Street was, but not every speaker has an Occupy mindset. Indeed, support for Medicaid expansion can be as reasonable and principled as opposition to it. Ridiculing either position isn't appropriate.

State Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove, is a physician who disagreed with Fallin's decision. Cox hopes the governor will change her mind. Another physician at the rally put the issue in more philosophical terms, rising above the placard clamor: “We are our brothers' keepers. We are responsible to each other. We can afford to do so, and we should.”

We'd take issue with the “afford” part, but it's a reasonable, principled statement. This debate must stay on the higher plane of deciding what we should do and how we should pay for it rather than demanding enforcement of a constitutional or civil right to health care that simply doesn't exist.

At least not yet.