There is no article, nor amendment, within the Constitution of the United States of America that gives Congress, the President, or the Supreme Court any legitimate power to exercise in this domain. That the debate, if you wish to call it that, continues to rage is a shocking testament to the fact that the document members of each aforementioned body swear to uphold bears no meaning on the course of American life today. What does that have to do with health care? Let’s make a little comparison.

There are guidelines as to exactly how our nation’s government is meant, or even allowed, to function. These guidelines are relatively simple to understand, having been written largely in plain English. To further simplify matters, they are not excessive in number. Surprisingly enough, in the face of such simplicity, the highly non-partisan guidelines of the Constitution are almost entirely ignored by all three branches of our government. These are the same people proposing to reform a system their own actions brought to ruin. The guidelines they seek to impose, while not even within their rights to legislate, are not simple to understand and are tremendous in number. Does this sound even remotely similar to a recipe for success to, well, anyone?

Proponents of the current House bill take great joy in climbing to the top of the hill and shouting that the free-market solution has failed us. This makes me pause and think, “What free-market solution?” There is no free-market in the United States. Pharmaceuticals, insurance companies, doctors, nurses, and laboratories are far from free within their own markets. What makes these people so certain that increasing bureaucracy within these same markets will cure the problems?