Healthcare

By Brian Anderson, Contributing Editor

The current health care debate is grounded in a broader discourse regarding the fundamental roles of the government and the individual in society. The left argues that the federal government should be a provider for its citizens. The right argues that the federal government should secure the freedom of the individuals in society. These mutually exclusive ideologies have a direct impact on the health care debate in that the side that wins will lay the path for the direction in which America will go. The left’s ideology would dramatically expand the size and scope of the federal government and decrease individual freedom. One can refer to large, centralized governments during modern history to prove that the bigger the government is the smaller the society’s freedoms are. This is why the current health care debate is a paramount moment in America’s history.

Those who yearn for freedom and individual accountability must continue fighting against the expansion of the federal government.

In a free society individuals are responsible for themselves and their actions should not have negative repercussions on others. Those who can afford health insurance but choose to not purchase it should not expect the federal government to provide health insurance at the expense of other members of society. According to current U.S. Census Bureau data, http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/hlthin08.html of the 46 million uninsured individuals who did not have health insurance in 2008, 17.5 million had an annual income of $50,000 or more. This suggests that many people who could afford health insurance choose to spend their income on other things. Life is a series of choices, some good and some bad, so when an individual chooses to forego health insurance and he spends his income on other things, that person should be accountable for his choices. There is nothing inherently wrong with an individual choosing to make health insurance a low priority unless he demands that others provide health insurance for him. One should not gamble with his health and expect other members of society to pay for his costs if he gets injured or ill. Such demands reveal that America has been transitioning from a society of individual accountability to a nanny state for decades, which must stop because the nanny state inhibits innovation and individual responsibility.

For example, America has the highest rate of obesity in the world. Obesity leads to chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, both of which are major contributing factors to the rising costs of health insurance premiums. An irony of American society is that low income households have extremely high rates of obesity. The high occurrence of obesity among low income households represents a fundamental flaw of the welfare legacy of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society social programs: when the federal government takes over a portion of the economy, that portion of the economy suffers. When individuals rely on social programs like welfare, Medicare and Medicaid they become trapped by their reliance on the federal government. Many low income individuals have simply accepted a fate that should not be. They have accepted that the federal government will take care of their basic needs so they fail to take the initiative to improve their own lives and their communities. To the left, they are the victims of capitalism. Yet, the left’s war on poverty that began in the 1960’s has not resolved poverty and low income households have fallen into the left’s welfare trap, which destroys any semblance of hope for those who are snared in it. If the federal takeover of health insurance is not defeated, the individuals who would rely on the federal government for health insurance would suffer a similar fate.

Although there are many on the left who naively believe that the federal government can run health insurance better than the free market, the federal government takeover of health care, which is 1/6 of the national economy, is actually nothing more than leftist political elites snatching power away from society. The Power-of-the-Purse leads to dependency on government, and worse, dictating how individuals must conform their lives to live inside the box that government built. When people put themselves in a position to rely on the federal government for their wellbeing, they invariably vote for the politician who promises them the biggest piece of the federal budget. This is why the public option for health insurance would inevitably lead to a single payer system and then, ultimately, to a single provider system.

The free market is not a perfect system but it leaves individuals with the freedom of choices. Individuals can choose to leave a health insurance company for a better one or opt out of paying for health insurance all together. Federal government programs predictably lead to inefficient systems and monetary waste so they ought to be the final option after an individual has expended all private sector options. There are many charities and organizations committed to providing services for those in need. After all, the beauty of a free society is that it reveals human nature. Although humans pursue their own interests, we also have a deep seeded empathy that drives us to be compassionate and help others, which is why charities are so abundant in America. To be a responsible citizen, people have a moral obligation to purchase some form of health insurance or seek charitable assistance and take care of their own health. The federal government should spend taxpayer money to secure our freedom and pay down the public debt so that we can pass on minimal debt and a freer America to our posterity.