The principles of Republican health care are straight out of 16th century England where being poor was a sure sign of moral inferiority:
1. You’re completely on your own. No one should be required to pay for anyone else, let alone care for him or her.
2. Everyone should have the “freedom” to purchase only the amounts and kinds of health care they want, and nothing more, except of course the rich who should benefit in every way.
3. Competition among and between insurance companies is the only way to lower health care costs. Consumers are lucky to get what they are offered.
4. Everyone should be required to pay something for visits to doctors lest they take advantage of government-financed health care, and thereby overuse it. People cannot be trusted to use health care wisely.
5. People are sick because they don’t lead healthy lifestyles. It’s their own fault if they are ill.
6. The poor are poor because they lack the proper moral fiber.
7. People who can’t afford health care deserve to die.
Every single one of these is cruel and mean-spirited beyond belief. They utterly destroy the concept of a shared society where people help one another in facing life and death issues.
There is no health care for anyone without health care for all. Health is not divisible.
