(12-15-2019 10:11 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  If government controls your health care and takes away your guns, you are--for all intents and purposes--slaves.

(12-16-2019 11:23 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 11:01 AM)Fountains of Wayne Graham Wrote:  Indeed. Felons on Medicare in Nebraska are slaves.

Way to pick an extreme, outlandish example.

But maybe not so extreme or outlandish. If government controls our healthcare and takes away our guns, felons in Nebraska would pretty much describe our lives.

The statement is, of course, a little silly since no serious democratic presidential candidate is advocating that the government take all guns and I'm not sure any active candidates are advocating a take-back for "assault weapons". And I'm not sure what you mean by "control your health care" since even Medicare for All still has private hospitals, clinics, doctors, etc. even though the funding mechanism becomes largely public.

That said, if the government controlled my healthcare and took away my guns, my life would ... not be very different. And i'm pretty sure I'm not a slave for any intents or any purposes.

Right now my healthcare is partially controlled by GEHA, a private corporation. Not sure how switching that control to the government would make things any better or worse. Based on my experience working for the government, there are some great employees and some terrible ones, which I imagine is the same as at GEHA. Most polls I have seen show higher approval ratings for people who actually have public plans like Medicare, Medicaid, and the military than the approval rating for private plans for people who actually have those private plans. But I have been OK with my private plans over the years. I have also been fortunate enough that both myself and my immediate family have stayed pretty healthy so I've never had to challenge a denial of coverage.