We live in a society where a large group of people are kicked aside because they can't afford medical services. That's a simple truth. We live in a society where certain people are told unambiguously that they don't deserve to live because they can't access medical services. We pay the price every day of living in such a society. It colors everything we do.

Just as these wars we are sending our kids to fight do the same. War is expensive beyond belief and obscene in the conditions it imposes. The costs are so high that the benefits must be equally so. The stupidity of people who can't understand this obvious truth should be a warning to others.

Medical care is more like police or fire services than selling toasters. It almost demands to be nationalized and socialized. It's failure as a good for which market mechanisms are effective should be self-evident.

Heresy, blasphemy, sedition, and of course un-American. For shame!

Long live the Empire!

who will be seen in any emergency room in the country? Who are eligible for Medicaid, or their kids for SCHIP? Or seen in free clinics, or by private doctors doing charity work? Or are these other people?

And no, in America it is exactly like selling toasters--the government owns the buildings, equipment, and pays the salaries of the police and fire departments. You planning on buying out every hospital and doctors office in America?

My only question: how do I opt out of health care reform? I'm not interested in anything like this, now or in the future.

FBH:

My only question: how do I opt out of health care reform? I'm not interested in anything like this, now or in the future.

The same way I get to opt out of the idiocy that was the invasion of Iraq, or the perfidity that is Gitmo and its associated tortures.

You either win the popular vote through political action, or you move to Somalia where the idea of a Government that Governs Least is reified.

YOU CHOSE

Actually, there are other ways. Not participating in government programs and "solutions" isn't as difficult as it may seem. Lots of people choose not to contribute to Social Security, and opt out of the future benefits. It's legal and it's done every day. Opting out of government health care will become possible too. Where there's a will, there's a way. Informal health clinics have happened, and likely will happen again, sort of a cash-n-carry treatment option. Any time a government rules, there are always potential loopholes. It just takes time to find them.