Captain's Quarters has a brief piece up (linking to a piece from Britain, as well as a larger piece from Heading Right) which discusses why nationalized health care will make us less free. Of course that's the case. The Democrats who are currently pushing for nationalized health care will, of course say something along the lines of "only when every one of our citizens is guaranteed the right to health care {through a government single payer plan, of course} will they be liberated enough to live life to its fullest."
The problem with that, of course, comes down to the old Golden Rule: they who have the gold, make the rules. Britain has apparently started putting restrictions on who is eligible for their national medical program (smokers are currently being targeted), and does anyone really question that the same would happen in the United States? Look just at public schools, which receive direct federal aid for school lunch programs: if they participate in the school lunch programs, they are required to turn off soda machines during school hours, they are required to certify certain numbers of hours for physical education, they're required to prove that their lunches are appropriately nutritious. Don't get me wrong--physical education, nutritious lunches, and limits on junk food are a good thing--but those should be at the discretion of parents and local school boards, not a mandate from some all knowing government.
National health care scares me, and should scare everyone. Yes, the cost of health care has risen, although I'm not sure that much of that couldn't be attributed to increased government micromanagement already--much of what doctor's offices and hospitals have in place in terms of record keeping is driven in part by rules related to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Yes, it would be good if everyone had health insurance, but nationalizing the best healthcare system in the world (after all, where do many international leaders come when they have difficult medical issues) does not seem the way to go--that will only guarantee that everyone has access to a mediocre system of care bent on micromanaging our lives and punishing our freely made choices.
LLE
