what does health freedom mean, exactly?

Feb 23, 2022

Written in 2014. Still relevant in 2022.

Confession: I've gone nearly my entire adult life without health insurance.

Doesn't feel ‘scary’ or shameful to be without it. Doesn't bother me at all, in fact.

About the only way you'd find me in a regular hospital being treated for anything, is if I were unconscious and couldn’t resist.

There's already lots of things in this country that we must pay for to avoid further trouble for noncompliance.

For example, I can't decide to not pay income tax and instead invest that money in my community as I see fit. At least, not without unpleasant recourse.

Will our decisions get more limited as time goes on?

Will decisions continue to be made for what's best for ‘everyone’, where ‘everyone’ is defined as companies or mass majorities instead of individuals?

I think that's likely.

Everybody pays for public schools, even if they don't use them.

I am deeply, profoundly opposed to our current definition of public ‘education’, BUT, believe it or not, I don't want to close down all the schools.

I want you to have the freedom to choose what’s best for you, becuase there’s no such thing as what’s best for everyone.

I want to preserve the choice to opt out without penalty or recourse.

I want schools to be an option for people who want and need them.

I want pharmaceuticals and doctors to be available for people who want and need them.

But I also refuse to be coerced into using them myself.

I understand that going against the status quo is harder. I am no stranger to swimming upstream, and I'm not opposed to it either. It might be hard, but it also makes you stronger.

Unpopular opinion: I don't think it's the government's responsibility to ensure I have an ‘easy life’.

In fact I think that people are all too eager to trade freedom and responsibility for obedience and ease.

Which, even that is their choice - but I think so few people fully understand the tradeoffs they're making.

I think the question comes down to, at what point does others' freedom to have access to these things become more important than my right to not have to fund those choices?

I strongly, deeply believe in investing in each other, in our communities, in helping those who need help (financially and otherwise) - but once it becomes mandatory to do so by threat or coercion, that's where things start to go sour.

UPDATE - it’s 2022. What does health freedom mean, NOW?

It seems that in the wake of the Canadian Freedom Convoy, some journalists are actually trying to conflate freedom with white supremacy and racism.

So now, wanting freedom = being “entitled” to freedom, and we all know entitlement is bad, right?

What ever happened to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Sigh…