
By: Heidi Moseley, THL ContributorDemocrats claim to be the party of personal choice. They bellow about a woman’s right to choose (to kill her unborn child) but are strangely silent for real choices when it comes to school choice, health care choice, and true freedom in all aspects of life.
President Obama terminated the school voucher program in Washington, DC even though children in the program had been performing better at a fraction of the cost. The students currently enrolled may continue until they graduate, but the program is now over as they are not registering any new children.
The school voucher program is less expensive per child than educating the child in the failing DC school district ($7,500 for vouchers vs. $8,322-$24,600 for public education.) So we save money –good for taxpayers- and the children participating actually get an education –good for society. But we can’t have choice in schools. No, we must keep DC children in schools that are over-funded and under-performing.
The students and families in Washington have fewer choices for education now that the program is ended. Parents who want the very best education for their children won’t be able to send them to the schools of their choice. This is an upsetting result, indeed.
Now, liberty-minded citizens are trying to keep competition and choice in our health care, battling the left as they attempt to take us to a single-payer option. That means that the private health care sector would be eliminated and we would have health care that mirrors the VA, Medicare or Medicaid. You would have to go to government-run hospitals and have government-funded doctors taking care of you.
Currently if you don’t like your insurance provider, you can do some research and pick out a different provider that suits your needs better. It might not be cheap, unless you choose to get catastrophic medical insurance, but you have the freedom to choose something else. You also have the freedom to remain uninsured, which many young, healthy people choose to do.
If the government is the only provider, and believe me- if the public option passes, within 10-15 years they will be the only provider as Barack Obama has said, and you will have one less choice to make for yourself. I’m not saying that the current health care system is perfect. I believe that health care reform should include more choices such as allowing Americans to purchase health insurance plans across state lines.
Also, we should have plans tailored for the insured. A single woman shouldn’t have a plan that covers prostate exams. Health insurance should not be employer-based, either. It needs to be more like auto insurance or home insurance. Both of those are portable, affordable, and you can pick the coverage you want or don’t want.
If the left and progressives were truly the party of choice they should want as much personal freedom as possible. They would want the American population to choose what insurance to buy, or not, which school to send their children and how to spend their money. Then they would be able to call themselves liberals.
Day by day we lose more of our freedoms. I wonder what choices I will be able to make for my family in the near future. Will all of my rights be taken by a nanny state that promises me the moon but delivers a pain pill instead of a pacemaker?

