With the US Supreme Court ruling June 28 that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is within constitutional margins, I have to stop and ponder both the enormity and the minuteness of the healthcare debate in and of itself.
The enormity of Obmacare, as I see it, is its impact on personal freedom. The basis of the SCOTUS rendering is that the mandate is a tax. Civil government does have both the raw power and the constitutional authority to levy taxes upon its citizenry. With Obamacare now correctly framed as a tax, we as citizens must consider our heritage of resistance against over-bearing taxes.
Obamacare should be relabeled as “Obamacaretax” so that we, the people, might rightly begin our peaceful but determined resistance to it.
Obamacare’s enormity is also seen in that a person’s physical condition and medical treatment may soon be not only a patient-doctor concern but also a patient-doctor-government concern.
The Pro-Choice Movement for years has had a bumper sticker slogan asking the government to stay out of a woman’s womb. We are on the precipice of government entering a person’s anus during a colonoscopy, a person’s chest cavity during open heart surgery, a person’s back, feet, knees, kidneys, lungs, arms, brain and — alas — the government will be in a woman’s womb.
Happier news. There is also a minuteness to the issue of government-mandated and government-administered healthcare.
Healthcare (both private sector and government-run) simply is not the totality of a person’s life. My worldview is that of a Judeo-Christian perspective. As such, life events from birth to death are both important and transitory. Simply put: This life is not the totality of existence.
As post-modern manhas abandoned our Judeo-Christian moorings in the West, we have lost the concept of the soul and eternity.
If man has no soul and if there is no eternity beyond biological life, it makes perfect sense to view healthcare (in its physical and financial aspects) as a major concern. Bluntly spoken, we have made healthcare an idolatrous ”god” to be pursued, worshipped, and preserved.
The different path is to realize that inside this biological body is a soul. This soul, mine and yours, belongs neither to the state nor to the corporations. This soul thinks, communes, loves, longs, hurts, rejoices, ponders and laughs. This soul is intricate, flawed and is of precious value to both its Creator and the other souls of creation.
Civil government has a power and presence that may financially punish a man and that may physically control the care of a man. Yet the soul is beyond the capture of state powers.
With certainty, 100 years from now all who read this will be beyond the grasp of the state, the tax and the system itself.
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Ted Grider writes boomRethink.com. For more information on boomRethink, visit our About page. *****Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. However, some links may be placed by WordPress of which I have no control and receive no compensation. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Tags: healthcare, Obamacare, President Obama, soul
