Is This Really What You Have In Mind?

For those of y'all who think the nanny state - specifically socialized medicine (oh ... excuse me ... "Universal Health Care") - is such a splendid idea, here's a little food for thought.

If you haven't been paying attention, there's an interesting story coming out of England. Seems there's an 8 year old boy who weighs in at about 218 pounds (yeeesh!!), and now the powers that be are contemplating whether or not to take custody of him away from his mother due to "neglect". Now many of us probably are thinking "218 friggin' pounds .... that's not neglect, that's overindulgence!!" But I would argue that this foreshadows an unexpected consequence of surrendering your freedom to the nanny state and it's "free" services.

Basically, the logic works. I think it goes something like this:

1. Any 8 year old who weighs 218 pounds is really overweight


2. Being that overweight virtually assures major health problems


3. Major health problems will be covered at taxpayer expense through the National Health Service


4. Since the National Health Service is publically funded and resources are not infinite, the state must intervene to prevent a huge (no pun intended) drain on the system

It's kind of like when you were a kid at home. You remember the old song & dance your parents used to do? It was called "My house, my rules". If mom & dad were ponying up the dough, they called the shots.

Now I'll grant you that this junior gastropod would benefit from some serious intervention (not to mention discipline, exercise and self-control). But that's not the point. Do you really want your government -- the one that does such a fine job running the postal service, IRS, war in Iraq, and lots of other things -- making health decisions for you?? Do you really want federal authorities to further define what constitutes "proper" parenting??

Moreover, where does it end? If any of the current collection of demopublican / republicrat candidates becomes President in '08 and pulls off some kind of socialized medicine in the US, I'd suggest that you hold on to your skivvies and hope you don't have any bad habits. Overeating, smoking, drinking, doing the tube steak boogie without a rubber, extreme sports, you name it -- all of these behaviors (and many more) will shorten your life span and cause you to be a burden on publically funded national health service. And since the market will be shut out of this new socialist utopia, there will only be two methods to bankroll the thing: raise taxes or ration care. One form of rationing care is to punish people who don't live the way the health Nazis decide they should. Your rights as an individual quickly evaporate under the weight of "national interest".

So puff your cigarettes and enjoy your Big Macs now. The health Nazis are coming, and they've got you in their sights.