Topic: Health Care
Class Discussion on Health Care Politics really shouldn't play a role in the classroom. Yet my teacher dared to experimentby Thomas Locke
(libertarian)
Monday, July 27, 2009
I was in class the other day when our teacher asked us our opinion on Obama's health care plan. She wasn't aware of the fire storm she caused. Passion ruled the air as everyone either watched or participated in the fiery debate. Points and rebuttals filled the air making it difficult to dissect all the information being presented. Finally I raised my hand and asked a simple question. "Is it really responsible to delegate to the federal government this kind of responsibility considering its track record?" All I did was add fuel to a wild fire as the endless cycle of points and counter-points ensued. A self-described liberal soon commanded "the floor" and said that it was indeed the governments responsibility to provide health care to all of its citizens due to the "general welfare" clause in the Preamble to the Constitution. I then counter-pointed this claim by citing not only Thomas Jefferson, but also of the tenth amendment. Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying "bind down the national government with the chains of the Constitution" and the tenth amendment gives the States their power. I went on to say instead of the federal government taking over something it has no jurisdiction over, how about each State figures out their own health care plan? This way there is a higher chance of success, since each state would be developing a health care system that would be best suited for the citizenry.
In my personal opinion, universal health care will fail on any level State or otherwise. But at least in my plan, it's constitutional. As for a right to health care, it is a fallacy. Healthcare is a service, a commodity. As I read in a recent article on Nolan Chart, you have as much right to health care as you do to a jet-ski. With a free market model, you can have high quality health care at an affordable price. The way to achieve this is to get government out of health care, not buy it a house in the neighborhood. We've already seen what happens when government meddles in matters it can't handle, we get the opposite of what we are promised. You want examples? The war on poverty, the war on drugs, education, peace in the middle east (yes I consider war another government program), Social Security. Let's please keep a complex issue like health care out of government's hands because it will be us paying the bills if we let the charade continue.
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I agree with you completely. Also the meaning of the term the "general welfare" has been greatly misunderstood. But James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, addressed that issue in Federalist #41. [link edited for length]
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