Debunking the Myth of Our Fathers

The health care controversy, among neo-conservatives, has strongly focused on what the founders of our nation would have done in regard to the current debate, most of these commentators consider themselves and the founders, mistakenly, to be originialist constitutionalists.

First off, it is absurd to think that any of those great men who started this country over 200 years ago could have imagined anything like modern health care technology.  This was a time where leaches and prayer were the two main sources of medical procedure.  There was no knowledge of sterilization, few if any hospitals, and doctors were not necessarily trained.  There also was no medical insurance, and doctors saw their oaths to help patients as sacrosanct.  The would help a person, often despite funds or ability to pay.  That said, there was often little that could be done, and little was know about basics such as sanitation.  So what would the fathers think of universal health care?

Well, for starters, they implanted the idea that we are endowed with the right to life, to liberty, and to pursue happiness.  Basic deductive logic says that we cannot pursue anything if ill, we have no liberty (from the French 'libre' which means 'freedom') if we are unable to make choices due to illness, and we certainly have no life if we die.  If that death is due to a lack of care, even though it is available, because the government did not provide, the right to life is certainly not being protected.

The closest comparable issue would perhaps be education and school funding.  Many of the founders, led by Thomas Jefferson, felt strongly our country needed a public, guaranteed education system for all its citizens.  Nonetheless, it took nearly a century for this to be established, because naysayers worked to prevent this.

Our founders were mostly federalist, with some confederalists, but none believed that lack of government on every was a solution.  Be it a state systems or a federal system, our founders would never have considered an unregulated capital market the best way to appropriate health care.