Health care and "freedom"

Ask anybody who has had their house foreclosed upon if the government guarantees a place to live.

Ask anybody who has lost their job if the government guarantees employment.

Ask anybody visiting a food shelf if the government even guarantees a minimum amount of food on the table.

In the U.S., the government guarantees next to nothing. A lot of people have a problem with this, but given the lack of serious attempts to change this in decades, it seems that people in the U.S. accept this situation as just fine.

So it’s pretty hard for me to take people seriously when they say that health care reform and a public option is a major blow against “freedom”, that such government intrusion is a takeover.

If we are going to have just one guarantee in this country, let it be this: that a person who has lost their home, lost their job, or even doesn’t have enough money to eat can still get access to the health care and prescription drugs that keep them alive.

I don’t think that is too much to ask.