Haves and Halves

As a published historian, Justin Ruhge knows the difference between fact and opinion.

Opinion: When the government gets involved, everything is screwed up.

Fact: Before the government got involved with ACA, at least 40,000 were dying needlessly each year in this country.

Opinion: Health insurance is a choice, like getting travel insurance.

Fact: Without health insurance that accesses health care, thousands have died needlessly.

Opinion: There is a dictatorship of the American people.

Fact: Public opinion has been changed, so that the majority of the American people, like the people in most other developed nations, has come to see that health care is a right, not a privilege or a choice.

Why do we need to have the government involved for health? It is simple, Mr Ruhge: It is the government’s constitutional responsibility to protect our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Health is a huge part of that, and the people have spoken, in that health care is now seen by most of us to be our right. The private market and for-profit health system did not protect us and our rights. That is fact, not opinion.

I am sorry you are sad about being in the minority on this. Also it is sad to see a historian who cannot grasp the broad trajectory of history on this matter.