I have no illusions about trying to force a philosophy of individual freedom down your throat, and I'm not going to try.

Look, take it easy. Relax. You're winning.

Socialist health care is probably inevitable in this nation, as the government and people like you are doing their level best to annihilate every possible private alternative and demonize every mechanism for providing care other than a single-payer nationalized system.

Already, market forces in medical care have been long corrupted beyond all recognition, and probably beyond all recovery. The citizenship of America has been trained to believe that, unlike food, shelter, or any other necessity, medical care should not require any payment from their own pockets, and they complain mightily if they have to come up with a pittance that is not covered by either private insurance or the government. Costs pass straight from provider to either private or government insurance, and the patient never sees them.

Under these circumstances, any economist could have predicted that there would be no restraint on prices. When I was young, medical bills--reasonable ones--were paid for like any other bills. The bill for my birth in a hospital was one, small handwritten sheet. A few hundred dollars. Not cheap, back then, but not the monstrosity it would be today. Insurance was for dire emergencies: long-term hospitalization or worse. Now, if you have to pay for a one-hour visit to the doctor, you're indignant. Hell, you're indignant if there's a copayment. And given the massive government incursion into the private medical industry, it's small wonder a hospital charges ten bucks for an aspirin. You see, somebody will pay them that--or five bucks after dickering. It won't be the patient, but somebody will. If the patient had to pay, you can bet the aspirin wouldn't cost ten bucks.

A graph in Consumer Reports years ago showed medical costs in the country over the past decades. A slow rise suddenly snapped to a near-45 degree angle and headed up. The location of the "knee" in the graph: the founding of Medicare and Medicaid. When the government pays, why keep the prices down?

Prescription coverage for the elderly will be next, and when the automatic response of the market to the removal of any incentive to keep costs down causes prices to skyrocket, all the rest of us will be dragged into it too, and drugs will become a government monopoly.

Small holding actions like medical savings accounts are shot down in flames. Might as well march on into that glorious future where every breath you take is solely due to the benevolence of our mighty and wise rulers, our Lords in Washington, and the State is the final repository of ALL resources.

If Oregon passes that bill, our country probably deserves it.