Universal Health Scare: "Excuse me, but I don’t have health insurance, by choice."

Politicians on both sides of the aisle (Schwarzenegger, Romney, Obama, Clinton, Edwards) have started the drum beat on universal health care.

Walter Williams correctly predicts that

...Some of our politicians hold up the Canadian and British nationalized health care systems as models for us. You can bet that should we ever have such a system, they would exempt themselves from what the rest of us would have to endure...

Moreover, freedom is premised on individuals making choices and many individuals are capable of purchasing health insurance but don't. Many, like Dawn Rivers Baker, purchase their health services on an as needed basis and don't need the government infringing on their right to do so:

...Everybody keeps saying, well, you know what happens when people don’t have insurance. They go to the hospital when they get sick and it all winds up costing a lot more and taxpayers pay for it.

Excuse me, but I don’t have health insurance, by choice. And when I or other members of my family get sick, we go to see our doctor and we pay for it out of pocket.

It’s cheaper that way.

We don’t dump our medical expenses onto our fellow citizens/taxpayers and I have a strong feeling that we’re not alone. Surely there are other people who don’t have health insurance but don’t go the hospital emergency room route when they need to see a doctor.

Here’s what’s bothering me. It’s looking increasingly like the option of choosing to pay our doctors ourselves rather than buying health insurance is going to be denied us. By denying me that option, federal lawmakers are going to wind up forcing me to spend more than I can afford, not because I need the insurance but because they need my dollars in order to subsidize the medical care of the people who do need the insurance.

That pisses me off...