-- Henry E. Hudson, the federal judge who struck down a provision in the health care law, saying that if the government requires citizens to buy health care insurance, it could also require them to buy or do other things in the futureBuy an automobile, to join a gym, to eat asparagus.
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The government already requires us to buy things: car tags, car insurance, motorcycle helmets, cars with seatbelts, basic innoculations, home insurance, garage-sale permits, hunting & fishing licenses, business licenses, cosmetology license, law license, and on and on and on. Some of these "taxes" are supposed to protect the users or consumers, some are just to raise money.
ReplyDeleteIt's ironic that our country was formed in protest to the taxes required by the British government -- "No taxation without representation" -- and to look at all the taxes imposed on us now.
However, I can think of no better end than that of providing healthcare and dental care to everyone in the country. I just wish we could cut out the middlemen, the insurance companies, in providing this service to all.
Classof65
I certainly see your point, Classof65, however I do think there's a critical difference here. No one actually HAS to drive, own a car, own a home, go hunting, etc. The requirement to buy health insurance is just for being alive. I don't think it's right to do that without a public option. That would be saying we HAVE to buy something from a for profit corporation. That's not a tax. I really don't see how that can possibly be constitutional. It's a give-away to the insurance companies.
ReplyDeleteI've been for single-payer myself from the get go: Medicare for everybody.
I agree that there should be a public option to cut out the insurance companies, but somehow I doubt we'll ever get that. Too many (probably all) in Congress are in the pockets of the health and pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies to ever seriously contemplate changing our system to the "socialist" system. How other countries were able to impose their systems without major fights with the insurance companies is beyond me. Could it be that our politicians are the most corrupt in the world? Even worse than those in third-world countries?
ReplyDeleteI think back on Presidents of our past and present and the various Congressmen and -women and wonder how many of these people lost whatever ideals they may have had when confronted with jillions of dollars in graft. The idea that Rangel was censured by the House of Representatives who do not have clean hands themselves is ludicrous. Our system of government is riddled with corruption -- and yet I still go to vote every year as if my vote made a difference. Democrats and Republicans alike are in it up to their eyeballs and yet we all pretend that they are not...it's so depressing.