Socialized Health Care in the USA

[--Pete]

Hi,

I believe the US government was established to keep the citizens free, rather than be the caretaker of society.

OK. So, how about roads? Schools? Water, sewage? Dams and levies? In many places, electricity (rural electrification, TVA, Bonneville)? Police? Fire? EMS?

Why are so many of these now provided by the government if the free market can do it better? Could it be that the free market failed? That your model of how the free market works is based on a false assumption -- the assumption that the majority of people are reasonable, intelligent, informed, compassionate, responsible, etc. The Jeffersonian assumption. Indeed, the Marxist assumption. But history shows us, over and over, that Jefferson was wrong, Hamilton was right. The average person is a stupid, selfish, indifferent brute who cares only for his own desires and pleasures and that will allow the world to go to hell around him rather than give up one beer to save it.

I want to make ALL the choices I can regarding me, my family, and my property (including my income).

Or, in other words, you want to withdraw from our society (while still driving on the roads we supply).

I want to reform the free market, and get government out of the way.

Again, I ask you, why did the government get "in the way" to begin with? Was it because the free market was doing such a good job that everyone had access to high care low cost health services? Or was it a repeat of what happened with the police departments, the fire departments, the schools under the free market? Are only the wealthy to receive protection from theft, from fire, from ignorance, and from sickness?

Only in the US can you get medical treatment to offset your poor health as a result of your 32 fast food meals in a week.

Every time you say something like this, your credibility drops. This is the kind of inflammatory rhetoric used by politicians and preachers. It is insignificant to the topic, as well as being an outright lie -- obesity and its effects is treated in all the industrialized nations that have national health care.

If we focus on minimizing the need for health care, the supply of care will increase and the overall costs will drop. I would also expect to see a dramatic rise in life expectancy and reduction in infant mortality. We are a sick society, mostly by our own bad choices.

You make that claim against all evidence. It's pure BS.

--Pete