No, they’re not losing their insurance. They’re gaining their freedom.
And it turns out that’s what America’s about.
Debate over fixing federal health-insurance policy got sidetracked yesterday over some wonk analysis of a Senate Republican bill that will supposedly leave 22 million Americans without health insurance over the next decade.
It was one of those diversions that Trump calls fake news.
And it also unquestioningly accepts an assumption that I’m not sure I agree with.
Namely, that more insured people is a good thing, or that it is the federal government’s business to get as many people insured as possible.
As I understand the Declaration of Independence, “governments are instituted among men” to protect their rights, not provide their entitlements. The role of government is to guarantee liberty, not suppress it.
And what the Senate GOP bill seeks to do is remove a government suppression of freedom.
That becomes obvious if you look at the numbers.
That 22 million, to be specific, is two numbers combined – 15 million who will no longer be forced by government to buy health insurance, and seven million who will over a decade be moved off Medicaid as it is lowered from the ridiculous heights to whichBarack Obama moved it.
The largest part of that – the 15 million – is comprised of people who will be freed from government dictate. Under the overreach of Obamacare, they were ordered under penalty of fine to purchase a product they may or may not have wanted to purchase. Certainly, it is wise to buy health insurance, and it is beneficial to others, but should it be a government mandate?
Can the federal government force us to buy things it deems good for us?
The answer: Hell no.
Because government can’t protect us without enslaving us. It can’t free us from the consequences of our choices without taking those choices away.
Which gets back to the purpose of the United States: “To secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”
Liberty is freedom and choice, it is not a benefits card, it is not a nanny state, it is not a government social worker. It is about us, not it. Anytime government compels action, or takes away choice, we should be suspicious, we should be ready to resist.
And where government has already intruded, and stripped us of liberty, we should be watchful for an opportunity to push it back, to get it back in its lane.
That’s what Republican Obamacare reform is. It is an effort to get government back in its lane, which is out of your life.
The proposal from the Senate says that 15 million Americans will, as soon as next year, be able to choose for themselves – as they did before Obamacare took over. Purchasing health insurance will become a matter of persuasion, not compulsion; people will be treated like citizens, not subjects.
Choice applies to everything, not just abortion.
Those 15 million will be freed, and they will be freed to accept the consequences of their choices.
And the seven million coming along behind them will also be encouraged to be independent.
Government entitlements enslave both the taxpayer who is unjustly robbed to fund them and the recipient whose self-reliance and self-respect are stripped away by them. Government benefits are the bait in a trap of dependence and destruction.
Rolling back Medicaid qualifications, to encourage self-reliance instead of dependence, is empowering to both the recipient and the taxpayer. It is not an act of cruelty, it is an act of liberation.
And the assumption is wrong: 22 million is not a bad thing, it is a good thing.
Because each one of those 22 million, and countless taxpayers beside them, will be freer because of this legislation.
If only the Republicans have the balls to pass it.
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NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 26: (L to R) Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks as Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) looks on during a press conference about the Senate Republican health care bill, on Capitol Hill, June 26, 2017 in Washington, DC. According to the Congressional Budget Office report released on Monday, the Senate GOP health care bill could result in 22 million fewer Americans with health insurance. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)