Yesterday, the Supreme Court began its hearing on President Obama’s Health Care Policy. It is a policy that was proposed by President Obama and approved by congress during President Obama’s first year in office. (The democrats controlled the House and the Senate when the policy was voted into law.)
The main question before the court appears to be does the government has the authority to force individual citizens to purchase health insurance? Implicit in this question, of course, is the larger and more important question: Isn’t the government violating our “freedom of choice” by forcing us to buy insurance?” Opinions are split along party lines. Most democrats say, “Yes.” Most republicans say “No.”
I am a centrist. I pride myself on understanding both sides of the issue. Let me offer you a few of my questions, concerns, and observations:
- · All the members of our three branches of government have government health insurance. So my question is “Why is government health insurance good for them to have, but bad for middle class Americans to acquire?”
- · If our objective is to ensure that every American has the freedom to select the best and most affordable health insurance, shouldn’t we make it unlawful for any insurance company in the United States to have a monopoly? It seems that we should be encouraging the growth of the free market by making it easier for more providers to exist. Current policies in the majority of states are doing the opposite.
- · President Obama was the first political leader to propose the ideas in his health care policy. The republicans were the first to propose the essential ideas that the President and his democratic congress passed into law. As a matter of fact, Governor Romney implemented the same insurance policy years before President Obama. So why was this insurance policy a good idea when the republicans thought of it, but a bad idea when the democrats made it the law?
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The issues noted here are just the tips of the icebergs. Tomorrow, we will look at the issue of “freedom of choice.”
By
James A. Porter
