From the Cradle to the Cradle
October 7, 2003
At least since the early days of the Clinton administration, I've been trying to get a handle on it, and after all this time I'm still mystified. For the life of me, I just can't figure out what I was doing while the rest of you took a vote and decided that universal health care was your God-given birthright.
These days, as I'm sure you've noticed, it makes no difference whether a politician is as far to the left as Ted Kennedy or as far to the right as Attila the Hun. When it comes to health insurance, I don't hear anyone suggesting the government's policy should be to simply butt out.
Understand, I have nothing against health insurance. I think it's a good idea, even if I am convinced that it's gotten wildly out of hand. As the system presently exists, it buries doctors in bureaucratic paperwork and promotes widespread fraud.
It's my contention that, catastrophic diseases aside, most Americans can afford to pay their own medical expenses. True, it might sometimes entail budgeting. Which could mean forgoing the latest DVD player or sacrificing cable TV for a few months or even cutting short a vacation by a day or two. But I thought that's what being an adult was all about.
Understand, I have no objection to employers offering medical plans as an incentive to their work force. I also have no problem with workers and their unions negotiating for full coverage or even going on strike in order to achieve it. That's the free enterprise system at work.
But, how is it that Democrats and Republicans, alike, have come to view health insurance as a basic American right, along with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? I'm pretty darn certain that neither Jefferson nor Madison ever argued the pros and cons of dental versus psychiatric, or whether the right to prenatal care should come before or after freedom of assembly.
Should we expect Congress to provide car insurance any day now? How about fire insurance and flood insurance and life insurance, while we're at it? And if not, why not?
When and how did we turn into a nation of squalling infants who require
politicians to change our diapers and pay our bills? And where the dickens
was I when it happened?
©2003 Burt Prelutsky
