Please explain to me the concept of health care as a right.
Mellard put it in quotes, so I don't think they actually think that it is a right, merely acknowledging that some/many supporters of universal single payer to view it as such.
I do still recognize that we need to come up with something to handle pre-existing conditions. Someone who gets cancer and loses their job (and employer paid insurance) shouldn't simply be told, "tough luck - go die now." There should be some way for them to be able to pay for medical care without going bankrupt and $500K in the hole.
Personally, I'd say that to handle this you'd handle it like the VA and "service connected disability". It'd increase premiums quite a bit initially, but here's how I'd handle it:
The Insurance that you have when you get or are diagnosed with a condition is on the hook to pay for it - forever. Even if you switch providers or lose coverage. Lose your job because of cancer? You got the cancer while covered, right? It's covered. It's like if your car is in an accident. Let's say that it's an antique, parts are hard to get, but you paid through the ass for a "repair covered at all costs" policy. If you're hit and it's going to take 6 months to repair, no matter what, even if 3 months in you transfer to a new auto insurance company, they still have to pay the ongoing bills for repairing that accident.
Now, as a matter of convenience, I'd allow them to "buy" your next healthcare provider taking over the payments for a pre-existing condition. Buy they'd have to pay the anticipated costs to the new insurance provider. Let them figure out the exact details involving averages, actuarial tables, discounts for future costs, etc...
Socialized systems always try and outlaw competition.
We aren't necessarily talking about a true socialist system. We could have universal coverage like Germany, where "Medicaid" has more or less been expanded to cover everybody without other coverage. There are still private companies out there, but they have to compete with Medicaid, so you don't see the insane costs as you see here, because they actually have competition to worry about.