Once upon a time there was a country with private run health care. The system was not perfect in that it did not cover everyone, but the quality of care was very high by international standards. One day, a person came along and ran for president. He would come to promise a better life for everyone, a change from the previous government, and the people flocked around him. When he came to power, he started making changes that would eventually result in a government-run universal health care system. Sound familiar?

In this system, if you needed to go to the dentist, you would need to make a line and sleep over the night before at the doorstep of the dentist’s office. Once you would be admitted, all the dental work would be done without anesthesia, because of a shortage, and the dentist would be rushing to get you out. If you moved too much he would yell “Stop moving! I have like twenty other people behind you!” all while hitting a nerve and nearly drowning you with the little water hose (because they have no suction hose either, costs too much).

Well, this is not a story about what is happening or may happen in America, but rather a story of what actually happened in Cuba. The person visiting the dentist was my father and this was a typical visit to the dentist. The regular doctor was not much different. The moral of the story is that government-run health care will invariably lead to rationing and long lines, it already happens in Canada and the UK. If this is the type of care that Americans want, a system that puts people on long waiting lists so that they can simply see, then we can start with a public option that will eventually evolve into a straight government-run health care system. Obama has been very explicit in calling for single-payer government-run universal health care, he is simply going about it a roundabout way. This is a matter of choice: either you deny choice by creating a government system or you allow people to have choice by letting private insurers offer their services. Red pill or blue pill. Should Washington bureaucrats, who refuse to read the bills they pass, choose or the American people?

-AG