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That Didn’t Take Long

Republicans are against ObamaCare, right? Well, that’s what I thought. But, it looks like it took less than 30 days for Congressional R’s to begin softening their position:

We too don’t want to accept any insurance company’s denial of someone and coverage for that person because he or she might have a pre-existing condition,” Mr. Cantor told a town hall audience last night at American University in Washington, D.C. “Likewise, we want to make sure that someone of [college] age has the ability to access affordable care if it’s under your parent’s plan or elsewhere.”

This sounds like health-care policy as guided by public opinion surveys.

It sure as heck does sound like policy by polling. And, it makes absolutely no sense. Let’s take the sentimental part out of the equation and focus on what we’re talking about here. If instead of health care insurance we were talking about car insurance, this would mean that even if your car is banged up before buying insurance, you should be able to buy insurance that would allow you to get your car fixed to remove the pre-existing dents. That’s not insurance. That’s passing the cost of repairs along to your neighbors. It doesn’t make any sense.

Now, I know that a broken car is not the same as a sick person, but the insurance aspect is absolutely the same. I’ve noted it countless times before, insurance and health care are not synonymous. Insurance is “coverage by contract whereby one party undertakes to indemnify or guarantee another against loss by a specified contingency or peril.” It is not a contract for coverage where everyone else should be forced to offset the costs of your existing health care challenges.

See, one of the problems with government mandating health care coverage for all is what it leads to next. Namely, the government starts feeling the need to legislate (read:tax or disallow) what we eat, what we drink and in general how we lead our lives. After all, they reason that certain choices put a strain on the health care system. For example, people who over indulge in sugary or fatty foods and refuse to exercise are more likely to develop diabetes and heart problems. Since we now have legislation that guarantees them health care insurance paid for by “the people,” then it only makes sense that “the people” should be allowed to minimize their future costs by legislating healthy choices. This is how freedoms are lost.

Congressional Republicans better do a reality check quickly, or they are going to find themselves back in the minority in the very near future.