The Next Step for Universal Health Care?
This past weekend, John Edwards gave a little further insight into what his plans for nationalized health care would entail. As reported by Associated Press, via the Guardian:
Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.
Did I read that correctly - required? There’s more…
“It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care,” he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. “If you are going to be in the system, you can’t choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK.”
He noted, for example, that women would be required to have regular mammograms in an effort to find and treat “the first trace of problem.” Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, announced earlier this year that her breast cancer had returned and spread.
He did say “if you are going to be in the system,” but it still leaves a number of questions. Here’s a few to start:
- Will participation in this national health care program be required for all Americans?
- If not, will those that don’t participate still be required to pay for it?
- If so, what will be the sanctions for those that choose not to follow your requirements - fines, prison, kicked out of the program?
- If fines will be the recourse, what will the enforcement mechanism to collect - civil or criminal?
- If someone is kicked out of the program, what will their options be for health care, or will they be left out?
- Where in the Constitution, specifically, is the Federal Government given the power to provide health care, and where is it authorized to require any level of participation in such a program?
I still have quite a few more questions to ask, but this is a good start. I’ve sent them off to the Edwards campaign, and will be sure to post their response if there is any.
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Thanks for reporting on this….
1. You would be hard-pressed in finding something in our Constitution giving the US Government the right to offer health care. However, the vast majority of Americans decided a long time ago that the Constitution doesn’t really give the Government the option to do a lot of things that we want done. And, instead of going through amendments and revisions, we decided to just let the Government do it.
2. I imagine that not seeking out required preventative care would simply void your national health insurance. Truth be told, this is one of the reasons why health insurance premiums continue to skyrocket. Eventually, preventative care will be required in both Market and Government health insurance plans. The Market may offer some hands-off plans, but they will either be super-expensive or super-restrictive. Health insurance right now is like a parts-and-labor warranty on your car with no requirement for oil changes or regular maintenance. You can’t drive your car into the ground and expect to not void your warranty. It is only a matter of time before Health Insurance providers realize this stupidity is going on, and fix the matter in requiring preventative care.
“For the People, by the People” if it get’s on a country wide ballot some-how, attached to presidential elections, and it passes as a majority, and is attached to the mouth of the candidate that gets in and it’s brought in as one of the party planks, then he, or “she” is obligated to fight for it’s implementation as hard as the present President fights for his blind misguided war policies. Remember “For the People by the People”. as the cry came from the Democrats in the last mid-term elections, which resulted in more of the same “bla, bla, bla…