“Our children will be paying for this the rest of their lives!!!!!!!!!”

Whenever this particular reason to oppose health care reform is brought forth, I always want to respond with the following:

“Yes. Our children will be paying for this for the rest of their lives, and their children will also be paying for this the rest of their lives, onward into infinity. They will all be paying so everyone can have access to health care, because, after all health care isn’t free.

They will be paying for everyone to have health care forever and ever. Just like will also all pay for everyone to have a public school education by way of property taxes, for everyone to have roads by way of energy or gas taxes, for everyone to have cops to keep the order and firemen to put out fires by way of a variety of taxes, fees, and surcharges, and so many other things we all have been paying for and will continue to pay for in order to supply them to everyone. The list of things we do for each other for the public good is long. Health care is just one more public good that our children and our children’s children will be paying for for the rest of their lives.

Tangent: The right to a lawyer also comes to mind. I have the right to a lawyer if convicted of a crime and my freedom is threatened, even if I can’t afford to retain a lawyer, no matter how long or protracted the trial may be, and no matter how expensive to the state. Oddly, I do not have the right to be seen by a doctor and treated for a medical condition which may threaten my very life, unless I can afford it. I can even enjoy a long and slow death with no treatments at all, if I can’t afford them, and if I can afford it, they will take every last penny they can, leaving my family homeless and hungry … and still possibly quite dead. Pretty crazy, don’t you think?