The right to choose

Re “One nation, insured,” Editorial, Nov. 16

What seems to have been lost in the healthcare debate is our inalienable right to make choices. This should not be sacrificed for “the greater good.”

When this healthcare bill passes, we could end up paying for government-mandated insurance we didn’t want or need. Or, worse yet, paying for someone else’s healthcare besides our own. The state will treat people like criminals if they exercise their right of refusal and opt out. The right to live our lives as we see fit will be pushed aside by bureaucratic meddling.

Say what you will about “an every-man-for-himself vision of society.” The last I heard, this is called individualism. The headlong rush to collectivism, on the other hand, is leading us down the garden path to dictatorship.

Richard Deight

Orange

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I think the Arizona Legislature should stick to its guns in deciding to give residents an option to not buy into a national health insurance plan.

However, there should be a couple of counter-provisions.

First, the national healthcare plan should stipulate that anybody who opts out can’t come back in later just because they’re sick or injured. Or because they lose their private insurance. Or because they’re in danger of going bankrupt. Second, the legislators who vote against government-sponsored health plans should opt out of their own state plans to avoid any perception of hypocrisy.

Principles are principles, after all. If an Arizonan’s limited-government philosophy is more important than his healthy family philosophy, he should stick with it.

Many of us think it’s more important that everybody have a chance to be healthy than for everybody to fear government programs.

Donnie Dale

Altadena