health care has to be born by the individual and the local community.  The federal government cannot be involved in national health care. If society is forced to pay for an individuals health care then society must be able to limit the risky behavior of individuals to an unacceptable extent.  I remember, as many of you will, a saying from my parents that is almost always some variation of "as long as you live under my roof".  The reason this saying is used is because when someone else is bearing the risk and paying the price then they deserve a say in the decisions made.  There needs be a direct correlation in every instance between the choice and the cost.  In fact there needs to be a total static link between choices and the benefits or costs of those those choices.  That is just and fair!  For example it is unfair to expect one individual who eats salads for lunch and runs a mile a day to pay just as much to the general fund for health care as someone who smokes 2 packs of cigarettes a day while sitting on the couch eating McDonald's.  We can't control the health risks individuals take and if they do not bear the burden of their own health care it is not fair to the responsible folks who take care of themselves.  Do we need affordable health care? Yes, but define affordable.  Will health care be affordable if you eat fast food every day... become drastically over weight and develop diabetes?  probably not!  Should it be?  Probably not.  Not that I don't care for sick people but we have to address the real issue.  We are each responsible for our own choices and we need to make good choices or else we need to prepare for the consequences.  If you want to engage in risky behavior like smoking that is fine but you need to be aware of the risks and buy good insurance and if you are unwilling to pay the premium for that good insurance then you either have to risk the health problems and the financial problems that will come with it or quite the risky behavior.  Obviously with this I believe that we need to educate children on healthy behavior from a young age at home and in school, both privet and public.  Prevention needs to be a focus as well as healthy living but people also need the freedom to choose for themselves.  Knowledge is important to freedom and liberty because to use liberty responsibly you have to be informed in your decisions.  While that is not a real goal of government it is a concern which is under governmental jurisdiction and should therefore be encouraged.  Distribution of knowledge should be dealt with in privet sector when possible but if there is a market failure so that important data is not being found and delivered so that individuals can make good decision I believe that government can aid in giving people the option to become informed by making the information available.  This should be scarce and used as lightly as possible however.  The most important realm for this is in government operations, especially the justice system and actions of elected officials, and in the health arena where the decisions if made wrong impact life or livelihood.  


Simply people need to realize that they are responcible for their own choices and if they refuse that responcibility then they will lose the liberty to make those choices.  There is no third option it is either freedom or slavery and anything that pretends to be a comprimise is hidden or delayed bondage.  



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    Ludwig von Mises: 'Used to the conditions of a capitalistic environment, the average American takes it for granted that every year business makes something new and better accessible to him. Looking backward upon the years of his own life, he realizes that many implements that were totally unknown in the days of his youth and many others which at that time could be enjoyed only by a small minority are now standard equipment of almost every household. He is fully confident that this trend will prevail also in the future. He simply calls it the American way of life and does not give serious thought to the question of what made this continuous improvement in the supply of material goods possible.' - Economic Freedom and Interventionism
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