A majority of Americans are more attracted by the idea of government funded healthcare than they are to job creation, local liberties, and the traditional American commitment to voluntary action. This is troubling, not because affordable healthcare is not important, but because societies that seek to provide it for free through government programs undermine crucial religious values. Government programs like healthcare crowd out more local, subsidiary institutions and associations (charity hospitals, for example—a high percentage of which were once run by Catholic organizations). They make us look to the government instead of to one another in our local institutions for help in time of need. They also bankrupt the nation, and in the process devalue human life. Whether in Great Britain, the Netherlands, or Canada, government-run health services have brought the rationing of care, followed by grisly death panels that decide who should be given treatment and who should be allowed to die, and, all too soon, euthanasia. (“No Blue Wave, Yet Troubles Are Ahead,” Crisis Magazine, November 7, 2018.)
HALO Board of Directors