This week on Politics without God, the blog of the Coalition for Secular Government:
- Friday, January 22, 2010: Deism in the Declaration by Diana Hsieh
This week on We Stand FIRM, the blog of FIRM: Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine:
- Monday, January 18, 2010: Colorado Rally Against ObamaCare by Paul Hsieh, MD
- Monday, January 18, 2010: Hsieh PJM OpEd: America Doesn’t Need a Health Insurance Czar by Paul Hsieh, MD
- Tuesday, January 19, 2010: More Medicare Malignancy by Paul Hsieh, MD
- Tuesday, January 19, 2010: Rhoads On The Massachusetts Election by Paul Hsieh, MD
- Wednesday, January 20, 2010: Massachusetts Miracle by Paul Hsieh, MD
- Wednesday, January 20, 2010: Today’s Massachusetts Video by Paul Hsieh, MD
- Wednesday, January 20, 2010: Hennenfent’s Reforms by Paul Hsieh, MD
- Thursday, January 21, 2010: Coloradans Speak Out Against ObamaCare by Paul Hsieh, MD
- Thursday, January 21, 2010: Hsieh PJM OpEd: “A Declaration of Independents” by Paul Hsieh, MD
- Friday, January 22, 2010: Armentrout’s Letter by Paul Hsieh, MD
- Friday, January 22, 2010: IBD: Why ‘Scaled-Down’ Health Reform Won’t Work by Paul Hsieh, MD
Here’s a quick note that I posted to FIRM’s “News” e-mail list that summarizes my views of the health care debate:
Don’t miss Dr. Paul Hsieh’s op-ed — Brown’s Victory: The Declaration of Independents — published by Pajamas Media on Thursday.Happily, ObamaCare seems to have been stopped dead in its tracks by the election of Scott Brown. Hooray!
However, defenders of free market medicine cannot be complacent. Democrats might team up with pragmatic Republicans to pass piecemeal measures, such as outlawing “discrimination” by insurance companies based on pre-existing conditions and expanding Medicare and Medicaid. Also, individual states might attempt to create “universal coverage” at the state level, just as Massachusetts did under Republican Mitt Romney a few years ago — with disastrous results.
Many Republicans, including Scott Brown, oppose further federal takeover of medicine, but they support the state-level socialized medicine. They aren’t advocates of free markets — nor even opponents of socialism. They simply prefer more local sources of tyranny. Yet socialism is morally wrong and practically disastrous wherever implemented, whether in cities, states, or the whole nation.
So we need to be vigilant, even while we pause to enjoy this victory. As always, I recommend writing your representatives — federal and state, Republican and Democratic — with a clear and succinct statement expressing your opposition to any forms of socialized medicine and advocating free market reforms. You can do that via Congress.org. Write letters to the editor. Talk to your friends, neighbors, and co-workers.
Finally, my heartfelt thanks to everyone who mustered the time and energy to stand up to the seemingly invincible juggernaut of ObamaCare. Thank you, thank you!!
– Diana Hsieh