Many Americans are willing to give up an important liberty.  They don’t realize it. But they are.

They are happy to accept government healthcare. Total government healthcare. They bandy about terms like “socialized medicine”.  And “single payer”.  The single payer being the government.

The liberty they would give up?  To comprehend it, read the stories about Charlie Gard. He is a wee babe in a London hospital. Under socialized medicine.

His doctors proclaim his illness is untreatable. They declare he must come off the machines that keep him alive. And that he must die.

His parents asked to take him to the U.S. For experimental treatment. They had to ask. Because under socialist medicine he is no longer theirs. True.

They raised $1.7 million for the treatment. The British doctors said “No!  We know what is best for your baby. He must die.”  The courts back them up.  As one government minister put it, these decisions were “…in line with Charlie’s best interests.”

The parents then asked to take “their” baby home to die. In the company of family and friends. The authorities said “No!” He will die when and where the authorities decide.

This is the face of single-payer healthcare. The payer pays the piper. The piper plays the tune. And you dance to it. Period. You are a prisoner of the system.

I wrote earlier about our family’s similar experience. Under socialist healthcare in New Zealand. Shortly after birth our baby girl was whisked from us. Taken to another hospital. We were not consulted in her care. We were utterly ignored.

To the doctors, we did not exist. In their eyes the baby belonged to the state.  If they had decided her life was not worth extending they probably would not have consulted with us. If we had wanted to take her elsewhere for treatment we would not have been allowed.

That was a frightening reality. Just as it is for the parents of Charlie Gard.  The piper plays the tune. The tune called for by the payer. The payer is the government.  The state.  In this instance the tune is a death march.

Here, we consider more and more government in our healthcare.  As we do we should realize more government means less of us. You and me.  As government makes more choices we get to make fewer.

We should also imagine what might come next. Socialist healthcare is notorious for shortages. Of equipment. Of specialists. Of drugs. Of money to pay for patient care.  Canada is famous for its socialist healthcare. Which is famous for shortages.

On a per-capita basis it has only one-third the MRI units we have. And only one-half the CT scanners.  Much of its equipment and technology is obsolete compared to ours.

When socialist systems suffer shortages they ration. No other choice. The old and hopeless cases draw the short straws.

No systems are perfect, of course. Our insurance companies can be brutal in what they refuse to pay for.

However, our system has more freedoms, more liberties. Here, Charlie’s parents would be free to raise money and pursue experimental treatment.  Under the UK’s single-payer system they have no such freedom.

Socialism suppresses the individual.  For the sake of “equality”.  In various ways individuals must accommodate self to a greater good.  They give something of themselves to the infallible regime. The state.

In this case Charlie’s parents had to give up their liberty to the state. The liberty to decide their baby’s fate. Their liberty to decide how and where he would die.

Government healthcare appeals to many Americans. I wonder if the numbers might drop if all of us pondered the case of baby Charlie.  And the manner in which he is going to die.

 You can write to Tom at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com. You can read more of his writing at tomasinmorgan.com.