Freedom & Progress

Freedom & Progress demands a common-sense approach to America's health care and health insurance concerns. It is a frightening position to live in this country without adequate health insurance. When one is un-or-under insured, it is likely that one does not receive adequate health-care. Progress demands that Americans receive preventative care. Preventative care involves yearly physical examinations, regular blood tests, and supplements (read: pharmaceuticals, vitamins, and natural remedies) to prevent health concerns our genes predispose us to. When one is adequately insured and thus receives adequate preventative care, one enjoys more freedom.

Freedom & Progress ponders, as Malcom Gladwell of the New Yorker does:

Do you think that people whose genes predispose them to depression or cancer, or whose poverty complicates asthma or diabetes, or who get hit by a drunk driver, or who have to keep their mouths closed because their teeth are rotting ought to bear a greater share of the costs of their health care than those of us who are lucky enough to escape such misfortunes? In the rest of the industrialized world, it is assumed that the more equally and widely the burdens of illness are shared, the better off the population as a whole is likely to be. The reason the United States has forty-five million people without coverage is that its health-care policy is in the hands of people who disagree, and who regard health insurance not as the solution but as the problem.

As a matter of moral principle, all Americans should be afforded adequate health care. Thus, health insurance for all Americans would represent progress. As Americans enjoy more of their health, they will enjoy more freedom.