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But Mike, a free country would never FORCE someone to buy anything.

But Jill, they already force us to buy car insurance.

I don’t HAVE to have car insurance Mike, in fact I don’t even HAVE to have a car! But that’s not right either. So, according to you, 2 wrongs make a right?

Nooooo, but people NEED ‘health insurance’.

Who says?

It’s just common sense Jill.

Really? I think it’s a HUGE scam!

Scam? Come on Jill. Health care is so expensive, if anything happens to you, you can easily get financially wiped out.

And the reason for that is the fact that ‘our’ government has become so involved with the health care system. It is not anything remotely resembling a free market anymore. Before they started screwing it up (100 years ago), it was the best in the world. We had a system that was affordable and innovative. The few people who couldn’t afford what they needed were helped out by charities, as well as friends and neighbors.

WTF are you talking about Jill?

Well, lets see. To start with, they went right along with the requests of the ‘doctors’ to restrict entry to the medical profession. They created ‘licenses’ and ‘accredited’ medical schools. People could no longer see the health care professional they wanted to, they were restricted to only those approved by the government. Of course, when you restrict the supply of something, the price goes up. Just like those doctors ordered.

Then, they created the FDA (not called that to begin with). That created the same problems with the supply of drugs and other products to do with health care. Now, it’s to the point where a company has to spend multi-MILLIONS of dollars to get an ‘approved’ drug on the market. No wonder the prices for drugs are so high here when the same things cost 90% less everywhere else. And, most places you don’t need to get a prescription either (saving you more doctors fees).

Are you nuts Jill? You want to let the snake oil salesmen loose again and allow people to buy adulterated products?

No Mike. I want to let the free market work. If you would ALLOW it to, there would be PRIVATE groups that would take over those functions that we really NEEDED. Just like the UL and Consumer Reports checks out many things now and informs people of whats up. There would be groups doing the same thing for health care providers and for drugs and other items related to health care.

But there would be no force behind those groups!

Yeah Mike, that’s the idea. No FORCE. Why do you think people need to be FORCED into doing things all the time?

If they won’t do what they ought to on their own, then someone needs to find a way to get them to do it.

REALLY? So who gets to decide what everybody OUGHT to do? You? Me? The President? Some irresponsible government bureaucrat?

Well, since Congress passed the law, then we all ought to follow it!

REALLY? Last time I looked, the LAW (the Constitution) said we are still a Constitutional Republic, NOT a democracy. The Bill of Rights still stands and there is NOTHING in there that authorizes Congress to write any such law, therefore regardless of what they may pass, it is NOT valid.

This country is SUPPOSED to be one that respects individual rights. It was formed specifically to do just that! When it violates that principle, then it is our right and duty to protest, up to and including civil disobedience and refusal to follow such unconstitutional so-called ‘laws’.

Oh Jill, you kill me. Go ahead and do that and go to jail. Get yourself shot for your beliefs.

No Mike, really its you and people with your attitude who are killing me. With every ‘fix’ your people put into effect, to ‘fix’ the things they screwed up before, it makes it harder and harder for me (and everyone else) to get decent health care in this country! I haven’t even got into the REAL drivers of the high cost of health care.

Oh?

Yeah. Do you realize that pretty much NOBODY ever had or needed health insurance til the government enacted wage and price controls towards the end of WWll? Health care was very affordable up until that time, even with the restrictions on providers and drugs. Because of the restrictions on wages, companies had to offer something ELSE to get the workers they needed. That something just happened to be health insurance.

That started the whole deal of tying insurance to your job (a HUGE problem), and it started the big problem we have now. That being no real price control. When people don’t have any concern about what something costs, then usually those costs are going to go up. Company paid health insurance started that ball rolling.

Medicare and Medicaid started in the 60s and really started pushing that ball!

So, now you’ve got restrictions on supply and a humongously increased demand and what could you possibly expect but that prices will go up?

Yeah, but SOMETHING needed to be done. People are dying because they can’t afford health care! Do you just want to let them die? That’s pretty harsh.

Mike, no one is turned away from an emergency room if they can’t pay. The hospital is required to take them (that’s another problem). Then they’ll have HUGE bills to pay (which they’ll either stay in debt forever or just walk away).

What I think is that we need to actually try to fix the REAL problem, which is government interference with the market.

Oh yeah, always back to the government. The government boogyman. You’re a broken record Jill.

If I am, it’s only because the government IS the root of most of our problems!

Yeah Jill, whatever.

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