Reform or Deform?

One hundred and forty-nine years ago, on the brick of a Civil War,Lincoln put his thoughts into immortal words:

...I believe, this nation cannot permanently endure half slave and half free.

He was right of course,and four years of bloody war soon followed. America was defined in that war,and a new America arose,one that would eventually pull itself out of the mud and unite, with freedom for all. More then that was decided though,and the power of the people switched from the state governments to the Federal Government.

Ah, the federal government. Born from the Founding Fathers quaint wishes to be a medium of the people, serving the people,and not leeching the people. That was so long ago that the vast majority of people in the country(maybe even Congress) don't even know who the Founding Fathers were.(Or care,which is why Congress can get away with so much)

I say, a nation cannot endure half socialist and half not. Can we now expect the federal gov't to fork out for our houses, our education,our car insurance,and everything else? I am sad for America,sad that we're giving over yet another piece of ourselves to our gov't. In Denmark,the gov't pays for your education,your healthcare,and probably quite a bit else.(they also pay out the wazoo in taxes) In America,this will probably be either a great help, or a grand disaster(premiums won't go down, people would rather pay the $700 fine & get insurance again when they do get sick)and all the sick people will be bleeding the insurance dry,premiums/etc. will go through the roof. And I hope I'm wrong...that it works out.(people should have their pre-existing conditions covered) But America needs to start taking responsibility and working to BE healthier,cutting out cigarettes,drugs,alcohol,massive BMI...there needs to be some clause in the Medicaid/Medicare policies that says if you abuse such substances,you are not eligible for benefits. We also need to stop paying for illegal aliens, we spend billions of dollars a year on them. We're killing ourselves, and the gov't is paying for it.(in Denmark,there is practically no morbid obesity so at least they've got that going for them.Their hospitals don't have to shell out for that) In my opinion, we're focused on all the WRONG things,and there is more to this then meets the eye.People need health insurance,but for the few that use it properly,there are a thousand more who abuse it.(carte blanche, play 911 tag on a Friday night just because you're bored/or in need of a bath/company. Which I witnessed, when I was on the rescue squad.)And the hospital passes on costs to everyone else to cover the bills, so they can stay in business. There needs to be some responsibility with this. Yes, I know there are many good,hardworking people out there who just can't swing it,chronic disease/everything else can be really expensive but I don't see this as helping the 2 million other Americans who have no desire to spend thousands on health insurance they don't want. It's so mixed up,and no one knows what will happen.