It is with great interest that I read articles about how health care reform has made many things free. The latest was ABC World News (8/1, story 6, 0:35, Sawyer) where it was reported that “Today is an important day for women’s health. … Starting today most of your private health plans must offer women eight different services and tests for free, including the yearly doctor’s visit, routine breast and pelvic exams, prenatal care, and the most controversial provision: birth control.” Really, this is free? So the doctor doing the exams, the manufacturer of the machines for exams, the pharmaceutical company that made the contraceptives, and the doctor who performs abortions all work for free. Am I the only one who shakes their head at this absurdity? Nothing is FREE!!!!!!  We pay for these things and anyone who thinks that these are free needs to have their heads examined. Let’s quit kidding ourselves and get honest about what is happening. By using the word free, the media and our government is misleading the public. Let’s see how long the medical profession will continue if we stop paying them. But it is free! How much medical technology would develop if everything is free? None would be the answer because the companies that develop it would cease to have an incentive. Our country has been an innovator because of the capitalistic system that is in place. The media tells us in one breath how we rank low in health care but in the very next article mentions a world leader coming to the United States for treatment. Let’s get real.  We remain the leader in the world because of the technology. Where are many of the doctors around the world trained? They are trained in the United States at our colleges and universities. Of course, in the future, we will need to make sure their training and education is free so they can provide these exams and tests for free. In addition, since the education is free, everything else will need to also be free.

We have become a society so easily manipulated by our government and our media that we don’t even question the most basic things. Refunds, rebates and entitlements are now such a part of our vernacular that we don’t stop to consider where these things come from. Government cannot give anyone something that it has not taken from someone else. This truism has become the norm and even our media talks about how only the “rich” will have to pay. The word rich is so generic that it can easily be exchanged with anyone who is not on an entitlement through the government. If you work, you are “richer” than those who don’t and must pay for those on the entitlements. When I was younger, it was an embarrassment to be on assistance. Now, it seems, it is un-American if you are not on some type of assistance. Case in point, if you don’t want the government handling your healthcare, you are not a good American and are hurting the system.

Freedom can only be kept when we are willing to stand up and voice our thoughts. Freedom is lost when we allow ourselves to be misled with thoughts of getting something for nothing. Our forefathers didn’t sit around and say, “Look, King George is willing to give us free tea as long as we pay him ten times as much in taxes as the tea would cost”. It is time we realize that these free things are costing us way too much.