“People who don't know medicare and medicaid are government programs are trying to tell the entire country how to run health care.”

“People who see Medicare going down the fiscal tubes are trying to tell the country that the government doesn't know how to run health care.”

Baby-Boomer America, roughly America since the 1970s, has been the theatre of Right and Left Libertarianism, which in either case is a fissioning force. It not merely tolerates but strives for incompetent government. Right Libertarianism deals with economic issues, the principle that the only legitimate duties human beings can owe one another are contractual. Left Libertarianism is often called “autonomy,” Roe-like liberty.

If there is ever a rational resolution to the health care issue, cultural conservatives will realize that the advance of public authority means the retreat of Left Libertarianism, if cultural conservatives can embed their ideas in a broader program aimed at making life more secure for average citizens. Left Libertarians will end up insisting on public support to keep private insurers in business, because those insurers will be able to fund abortions when public entities will not, etc.