Whose freedom is it anyway?

Whose freedom is it anyway?

by digby

Reader sleon asks a very important question:

If the Tea Partiers – to the extent that they believe they are not corporate shills – really think the Health care battle is about freedom, why won’t they accord the rest of us the freedom they crave? In other words, if they don’t want government healthcare and the mandate to buy insurance, fine. Here’s the deal…we’ll eliminate the mandate in exchange for people being able to buy into Medicare for All.

Then they can choose to go without insurance – and be refused care they can’t pay for – or buy private insurance where 40% of their premiums will go to overhead and profit, while the rest of us can choose buy into a plan where only 3% goes to overhead and there is no profit. If you want to be “free” to choose, I should be too.

Why shouldn’t I be allowed to choose Medicare if I want to? I feel that my freedom as an American is being infringed. How come these people are all forcing me to buy private insurance against my will. What is this, Communist China?

Sure, it’s a stretch. But of it infringes on someone’s freedom for insurance companies to make contraception part of a preventive care package, then it sure as hell infringes on my freedom to be denied the opportunity to buy insurance through Medicare.

Who are these people who would deny me the right to buy what I want to buy! This is America!

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