Is an Individual Mandate to Buy Health Insurance a Good Idea?

I understand now why the Caduceus is used as the symbol for medicine in the U.S. The twined snakes represent the medical field itself, the other, government. These two have battled their way up the rod(=life), and are perched to strike at the wings(=we the people) above. If we are required to buy for-profit health coverage, under threat of penalty, how are we any better off than, say, China? Their gov't dictates many aspects of the lives of its citizens to them. But even China isn't as audacious as demanding where personal income is spent, or on which products/services. This is lunacy! It is Fascism writ large, yet Socialism in that ALL MUST OBEY AND COMPLY! Individual Mandates are the most Unconstitutional pile of garbage we have been fed yet! If this provision passes and cannot be defeated, we will all suffer. What's to stop them from mandating other uses for OUR money? Why not an Internet Mandate: Everyone has to get a computer with a high-speed connection, OR ELSE! If this works for them, the powers that be will be lords over all of your purchases, and may eventually demand brand loyalty, why not? This so called healthcare reform is a farce; a blatant money grab designed to kick us when we're down. If they're going to start holding us to things like buying into their schemes, we need to hold them accountable for essential things like our well being, safety, education, etc. Yet these are the very things our elected leaders are now trying to profit from! A real and viable Public Option is the only hope we have of moving toward Universal Heath Care, This is our most desperate need, regardless of what the Socialist-scremers say. However, we cannot allow this Individual Mandate to move forward at any cost, even if defeating the mandate means sacrificing that Public Option. The proposed Mandate is poison in the well. We desperately need reform. Not Baucus' or Frist's or Armey's shenanigans. We have come, some of us dying, in good faith to our government to plead for accessible and fair treatment for all. They have given us a labyrinth of false choices and fed us lies, all while working behind our backs with the very monstrosity which has contributed to our ills by doing its bidding. We have entrusted our lives to our government; all the while she has betrayed us by lying with our enemies and handing over our wealth to them. Yea even with both hands!

Enlightened Barbarian of OH 12:50AM October 13, 2009