October 2011 issue of Freedom's Phoenix magazine - fr33aid

Continued from Page 8 - Health Care Freedom –
Are We There Yet?
If we own ourselves, and we do, then we have to
own our bodies, and that means doing what so
many Americans are already doing -- trying to
live healthier lives, avoiding addictions, eating
foods that promote health, avoiding unhealthy
habits or balancing them with health-restoring
habits. In this we find that the governmentpharmacological
and agricultural axis is sending
mixed messages. The USDA wishes to sell
subsidized dairy and grain products, so it tells
us we should have plenty of these. If we didn’t
have a USDA to subsidize grains and dairy, to
promote food purchase through various food aid
programs, and to advise us as to what is “good”
to eat, no doubt we’d eat better and be healthier.
To suggest that the government advice on what
to eat, and its subsidy of food for the poor has
made us less healthy may be seen as sacrilege
– until you look at the results of the Great Society
programs on steroids today. Government
subsidized food is fattening, and those who buy
into the government recommended consumption
models quickly become overweight and unhealthy.
If the government printed, promoted
it, or pronounced it, we should pretty much run
from it.
Clearly, for health freedom, we need to be separate
from government in thought and deed –
but we should be closely integrated with our
families and communities. The understanding
that we have of what works and what doesn’t
in maintaining our health, and also our awareness
of environmental and dietary concerns, are
statistically important not in a rare headline far
away, but as it impacts our own family and community.
To be healthy, we ought to listen to our
neighbors, and be aware
of our environment. The
infamous story of ground
water contamination portrayed
in the movie Erin
Brockovich was a story
that we find again and
again. It tells us that our
neighbors, our family and
our community are the first
to know of health hazards
– not corporations or government.
Localism and localvore movements
can be educational, but for real health freedom
we must be aware and connected to our neighbors
in a far more fundamental way.
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There are those who would argue that only government
is big enough and kind enough to help
us when we have a catastrophic injury, health
care crisis, or need expensive care at the end of
life. That these conditions are rare, and should
be rare, is fundamental. But government involvement
– in other words, health care delivered
through a forced collective – means it will
be one size must fit all, and behaviors that are
rewarded (but not necessarily smart, sensible,
or healthy) will increase. Government interference
in health care means warped and counterproductive
incentives, and it means false
pricing data for investors, providers, patients,
the marketplace and scientific communities.
It will inevitably and inherently be unfair. In
the end, those who can go above, underneath,
or outside the system, will do so, and those left
with the government system will suffer and die
prematurely. This is the problem that Hayek,
Orwell and Solzhenitsyn have all described in
detail. Hayek’s closing
words in his popular book,
The Road to Serfdom, offers
a better prescription
for American health care.
He writes, “The guiding
principle in any attempt to
create a world of free men
must be this: a policy of
freedom for the individual
is the only truly progressive
policy.”
We are not there yet – but keep in mind we have
some rules to live by, and these rules of living
will bring health for ourselves, and for millions
of others: 1) We, and our children, are not and
never will be involuntary servants to the state.
This fact legitimizes our actions to buy, promote,
and consume the foods and drinks we choose;
2) We own ourselves, and this means practicing
in a myriad of ways, good mental and physical
health, and avoiding the slavery of both addictions
and self-limiting belief systems; 3) We
should recognize and remember that we live in
families and communities and within a living
society, not in the abstract concept of a maternal
and patriarchic state, and; 4) We must embrace
the only truly progressive principle, which is
also a healing principle: Freedom!
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