-By Warner Todd Huston
One of the things that those of us against government run healthcare systems are wary of most is the probability that government will begin to mandate how we are to live our lives. This assumption of power by government would mean a loss of our individual liberty and a corresponding theft of that liberty by government. Naturally, advocates of a single payer, socialistic healthcare system laugh off such worries and say “it’ll never happen here” — famous last words, of course.
Sparking such worries anew, Senator Chris Dodd (D, Conn.) recently said that it was entirely possible that the criminally troubled community group ACORN could likely qualify for funds from the Senate’s healthcare bill. But what ACORN might use those government funds for should alarm everyone.
Apparently the “Creating Healthier Communities” provision of the bill (found on page 382), would see grants awarded to state governments, local governments and groups that are members of a “national network of community-based organizations.”
And what does “Creating Healthier Communities” mean?
The grants are designed to fund groups that will “measure” people’s health-related behavior on the community level, including whether they are gaining or losing weight, eating the right foods, getting exercise, using tobacco, or engaging in other personal behaviors targeted for federal monitoring by the secretary of health and human services.
And what would this data be used for, one might wonder? Why, what else but to determine who should be allowed to have healthcare? After all, if you aren’t eating the “right” foods — according to government — if you aren’t exercising enough — again, according to the government — then why should the benevolence of the government be showered upon such an undeserving reprobate?
I suppose if you are so in love with President Obama that you don’t mind him telling you what food to eat, when or how to exercise, or if you are allowed to have a cigar or alcohol, nothing can be said that might deter you from handing over all your personal liberty to the nanny state. But realize that most of us are not eager to let Obama become our father and mother.
It must be realized that this “Creating Healthier Communities” provision is absolutely one of the ways by which government will decide who is worthy of receiving government healthcare. Further, whether Obama will admit it or not, there must come a time when such decisions are made on the federal level. As government takes over more and more control, more and more regulations, definitions and procedures will be crafted to govern the use of government money and some criteria will have to be found from which to base such decisions. There is really no way to avoid government telling us who is worthy enough to enjoy the benefit of government healthcare dollars and who will be sentenced to suffer and die. It is the only out come of government run healthcare.
And with this “Creating Healthier Communities” provision we are seeing the first signs of how that criterion will be created.
Finally, notice that doctors are not in the mix here. It will be Chris Dodd crafting a bill that will give power to ACORN to study a community’s health and then ACORN will report back to the Senate that will, then, decide who is allowed to get what healthcare based on other studies created by Congress.
None of this sounds like healthcare. It all sounds like politics.
(Cross Posted at HealthCareHorseRace.com)
____________
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.