Celebrate the Freedom to Choose
As we pause to celebrate our 233rd birthday as a nation, I would like to dedicate a part of that celebration to our medical freedoms. Today, we are at the threshold of a national health care system to be completely controlled by the federal government. If this health care ”reform” becomes the law of the land, we will, for the first time in our history, lose our right to choose the type of care, and often the provider of that care, that we want.
Granted, there is a lot wrong with health care in our nation. It is expensive and it is frequently constrained in by laws and tradition. However, even with those downsides, we enjoy the individual freedom to make our own choices. Regarding costs, we can choose to have health insurance or choose not to. If we choose to be insured, we have choices of plans. If we choose to be uninsured, we can pay out of pocket for our care or do without. I know that is simplistic, and I understand that many people want and need health insurance, but can’t afford it. But the answer is not to lose our freedom of choice. We all have the freedom to work the political, legal, and commercial systems to resolve the problems. The constraints on the medical industry that limit our choices are our fault, because we don’t choose to work toward relieving those constraints.
If the citizens of America would get fed up enough with the costs of health care and the lack of options available (such as integrative cancer therapy–my cause), we would put so much pressure on our leaders and on the market that it would force change. That is the freedom we have! Freedom is not the right to avoid a problem at the expense of another freedom. Freedom is the right to change what needs changing. We don’t need government control of another very personal part of our lives, we need to control government–that is what democracy is all about. We need to demand reasonable health care costs and expanded access to medical options through the free market process. It’s not revolution; it’s just good old patriotic involvement in the exercise of freedom.
Make this year the year you choose to actively pursue affordable health care and availability of more options. Don’t just depend on the government to squelch your freedoms in this area, too.