Sounding Off on Healthcare

Ah, healthcare...here we go again.

I Am, Therefore I Deserve
The notion that everyone should have health insurance simply because they are owed it is foreign to me and I believe it to be just plain wrong. The entitlement mentality is running rampant in our society and not just where health care is concerned. Not too many generations ago, people wanted the government to leave them alone, and now many want the government to be completely responsible for them.

For many years, I lived in a single parent home as a child. My mom received no child support. Times were tough. However, she recognized that she had a responsibility to provide for us girls, and that's exactly what she did, working multiple jobs and selling sausage biscuits from our porch to neighbors headed off to work. I had no idea we were poor, only an understanding that it took hard work to raise a family and that you did what you had to in order to make ends meet. Sometimes that meant making payments to the doctor for services rendered because you didn't have health insurance and couldn't pay the bill all at once.

Healthcare is Not a Right
Back when companies began to offer health insurance to their employees as part of their compensation packages, I would almost bet it was not because someone thought it would be a generous thing to do. I believe it was the result of needing to entice the best employees to come to work for them and because it allowed for a less expensive premium for everyone -- you know, like a group discount. I think it is unfair to impose on businesses the mandate that they must provide healthcare for employees.

Additionally, think for a moment what would happen if all the folks who became physicians stopped practicing medicine and no one else entered medical school from here on out. Far-fetched, I know, but I say it to prove a point. No one forces anyone to become a doctor. That choice is made in the same way some become attorneys, teachers, small business owners, etc. We have healthcare providers because they choose to become healthcare providers, not because it is a right of the masses to receive medical attention. But because so many believe that healthcare is a right, what's next -- will the government force people to become physicians?

Healthcare is not a right like free speech or bearing arms. Just because your mom and dad brought you into this world doesn't mean I should be responsible for your well being just because you were brought into this world. Take some ownership of your own life and stop mooching off mine.