I didn't want someone to try and change my mind about single-payer or socialized medicine. Since I began studying this health care topic at length, I have been militantly opposed to government overreach and overtaking of the medical profession. I want our doctors to be free to practice medicine, while consumers can enjoy the privilege and opportunity of choosing the best doctors and care at a proper price.
Health care costs are skyrocketing, and health insurance has become so far out of financial reach that most Americans just forgo purchasing the plans altogether. The real reforms which need to take place must focus on scaling back government intervention. Let me buy health insurance across state lines. We need to implement proper tort reforms so that lawsuit abuse comes to an end.
How about ensuring lower regulatory burdens, too?
Health care is a sore subject, the biggest concern for people on the left, while people on the right are the most alarmed about public safety and immigration.
The Culver City event was available to the public, but they did ask me to put my camera away at the end.
Check out the first sections of video which I had recorded, though:
The entrance appeared at the back end of the building, strangely enough, but no big deal.
Most of the people were gathered in a room toward the middle of the building. Most of them were in their 50s and 60s. There were maybe two or three Millennials, and there was myself.
Maureen Cruise was heading the event, leading the discussion and the plans that all the other members of the group were invested in. The people in the room were set up in a circle mostly. Some of the people reached out to me right away and greeted me. I told them up front that I am opposed to single-payer health care, but I was willing to listen to everyone else's reasons for supporting it.
Maureen Cruise told me that she received free health care in Spain when she visited, there. "You are human, therefore we are treating you"--that's what they had told her. OK. I would never challenge the individual accounts shared by others. I do not accept the premise that health care is free. No service or commodity is free, since someone pays that cost of providing those goods and services.
Furthermore, the taxpayers in this country pick up the tab on everyone. How is this fair? How is this wise?
At any rate, I went to every length I could to have an open mind that night.
The main subject of discussion focused on SB 562, the single-payer legislation which the California State Senate had passed, but which Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon had shelved. That decision was one of the few actions taken by this uber-liberal Speaker which I applauded. Of course, the California Nurses Association was furious, and some of the union's members were present in the meeting that night.
Many of the progressives and liberals acknowledge outright disgust with the Democratic Party, in the similar way that grassroots conservatives have lost their peace with Establishment Republicans. The Democratic Party has placed single-payer health care as one of their key platforms for decades, and they were so close to seeing that dream come true in California.
But it didn't. Even the most liberal, progressive, left-leaning of Democrats cannot make money appear out of nowhere, and even the most ardent of Democratic activists in the State Assembly must balance the budget and present proposals which Governor Brown will sign.
During the discussion, I was surprised that there were individuals in the meeting who oppose single-payer health care, not just myself. Some of the people were ardent advocates, and they had plenty of material with time to make their case and promote the program to anyone who wanted to listen.
Some of the attendees were very rude to me, because I wanted to ask questions and challenge the ideas I was hearing from different people in the room. One guy was down-right hostile to my opposition to SB 562, claiming that I basically wanted people to die.
Huh? This is what has become of rational discussion on this very contentious, serious issue in our country and from our government?
After preliminary comments from Maureen, she showed a video from the latest DNC Convention, in which hardened single-payer activists confronted Keith Ellison over enacting socialized medicine at all costs. It was refreshing as well as entertaining to watch Democratic Party leaders run for safety and obscurity from angry party leaders. The growing divide within the Democratic Party should awaken many to rejoice. The Center-Right political coalition has grown stronger than ever, and the opposition to Big Government bullying and Globalist aspirations is falling apart fast.
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| Speaker Anthony Rendon |
At any rate, people went around the room and introduced themselves on different issues. People were more than happy to share about their efforts to recall Speaker Anthony Rendon and any other Democrat who was opposed to single-payer health care. I laughed when I told everyone that I supported their efforts to recall Rendon!
Throughout the meeting, I was surprised at how much time and energy the single-payer advocates had invested in pushing the agenda. There were men and women in the room prepared to sign up and go door-knocking in Speaker Anthony Rendon's neighborhood to make the case for going single-payer. They also wanted to organize and agitate the predominantly Hispanic voters in Rendon's district to coalesce and throw out the Speaker in the upcoming election if a recall effort did not succeed.
After the meeting, I talked with two people. One older gentleman was born in New York City, and he appealed to his Jewish faith as a reason for pressing for single-payer health care. While we were talking, he repeated to me how much he adamantly opposed Obamacare, precisely because it did not go far enough! When I pointed out to him the statistics and the anecdotes about single-payer countries--long waiting lines, incompetence, malfeasance, poor quality if medical care--he became indignant, and said: "So what's your alternative? Everyone dies?!"
This kind of rude riposte was all too common from other people. The same guy who had mocked me earlier in the meeting then doubled-down on his hateful rhetoric. I eventually confronted him, but he said that I did not want to have a serious conversation, then ran away:
Final Reflection
Whenever I wanted to have a serious discussion of the issues and concerns connected with single-payer health care, I was met with derision and hatred. I knew that these men and women are fully invested in making this government-run health care program happen, but how do they want to pay for it? Why won't they respond to the growing voices of concern calling out the inefficiencies and rationing?
The more people whom I contact--who have lived in single-payer system countries, the less I want to see government-dominated medicine in the United States.
We have to stand up to this!
But still, after all the information in opposition to implementing the program, these people are still committed to single payer.
What is going on?
I conclude that this is a religion. The whole commitment to government-run health care is a cult for these adherents. They are not interest in facts. They are not interested in anything that will undermine their idealized "cause". It's an article of faith with these proponents, and they will not allow anyone to speak against the single-payer dogma. This rigid blindness is damaging, and it's putting people's lives at risk.
We just can't have it, folks, It's time to make the case to as many young people as possible to reject socialized medicine and to strive for individual liberty and accountability at all costs, especially in our health care. Our lives depend on it.
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