Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Healthy Debate

On the day that courageous Republicans lead the charge to repeal the onerous and oppressive social experiment that is "Obamacare," I read of another threat to our American way of life. True to their campaign promise, the newly minted GOP-stoppers voted down the health care reform that was signed into law just one year ago. More than half the states in the union have filed suits against the plan, leaving the question of how we pay for our tired and poor huddled masses to become strong and productive members of society.
And there was that other matter: Two members of Colorado's state legislature proposed that anyone with a Colorado driver’s license or ID card is presumed to be an organ donor unless the person initials a statement opting out of the program. Currently, a person must initial their ID card to be considered a donor. It's one of those "opt out" deals where you have to sign something or click here if you don't want an additional twelve issues of "Budget Travel" delivered to your house, or the Google toolbar hanging over your web browser. Wait until the Republicans get wind of this one. People will be longing for those days of enforced insurance and death camps for grandma. Instead they will be sleeping with one eye open, clutching the parts of their bodies that they aren't quite ready to give up. At any moment, poorly trained government employees will crash through the door, demanding you liver. Also, there was some concern that making organ donor the default might actually limit the number of people signing up for the program.
But that's the problem, isn't it? The dance that needs to be done to keep the net out there so that government can catch us when we fall, and becoming ensnared in bureaucracy. We want the states to build us highways but don't tell us how fast we can drive on them. We want the government to bail out our free market system, but please don't ask for that money back. We want our health, but we don't want to pay for it in blood. Or soft tissue.

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