Nobody else is responsible for your choices but you. This applies to your health, your finances, your relationships and any other area you’d like to include. Most people want freedom, but fewer want to take responsibility for irresponsible choices.

Let’s look at the health question as an example. If you smoke (tobacco or marijuana) there are associated health risks. If you eat SAD (Standard American Diet), and don’t take time daily to exercise (walk, jog, swim, bike, train with weights, etc.), then you are a candidate for Type II diabetes and may be dealing with some degree of obesity. The newest term for this dangerous combination is diabesity. If you are dealing with health challenges related to your choices, you are responsible to make changes. Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?

Sadly many of us are unwilling to see it this way. I want to eat whatever I please. Don’t want to exercise. And when I have a health problem I want to take a pill to solve it, but I’d rather not pay for that. I need free medical care. In reality, nothing is free. In countries with socialized medicine the average tax rate is around 55%. That’s about double what a working adult is paying in the United States right now. Your health insurance may seem expensive, but will a system like this be cheaper for you? For me the answer is no. Since I never go to the hospital and rarely to the doctor, it is grossly unfair for the government take half my salary to pay for others who haven’t taken care of their health.

In addition to this a government run health system would be like, the VA (Veteran’s Administration). Ask a veteran how happy they are with the quality of care they receive. The government would decide whether you deserve treatment. The government would decide whether or not to pay for the birth of a child that they deem unworthy (those with physical challenges like down syndrome). The government would decide whether to provide expensive care to someone a medical board determined not worth the expense. A recent well publicized incident in Great Britain comes to mind, wherein the British government refused to prolong a baby’s life, and then prohibited the parents from taking their own sick child to another country willing to treat it. They went as far as posting armed officers at the doors of the hospital! Why? Because the British government determined the baby would, and therefore should, die. I am not willing to give life and death decisions about my health to any government. Then there is the use of tax dollars to pay for abortions, which I (and others like me) oppose.

In the event all of this talk about personal responsibility would cause you to think I don’t care about those who are sick. You would be wrong. I believe affordable healthcare should be available to everyone. I believe those who cannot afford to go to the doctor should receive help when they are genuinely in need of it. I would give money to make this possible. That doesn’t equate to me going to the ER because I have a head cold, or seasonal allergies. When I was a child my parents took me to the hospital to get my tonsils out, and to the ER because I accidentally stuck a knife through my hand. Now, there is an increasing tendency to run to the emergency room for most anything. If you can afford it, then that’s your choice, but don’t expect others to subsidize such an expensive trip when you could have gone to a primary care doctor.

Some of us have medical problems we didn’t do anything to cause or even contribute to. I am nearly deaf in my right ear. It happened in one day and has nothing to do with my choices. I’d like to be able to afford hearing aids. Currently I cannot. They run between $3,000-5,000 I don’t expect the government to provide them. I would like a more affordable option, however. Currently I don’t have medical insurance, and even when I did hearing aids were not covered. I know others who have serious health problems that they did not cause. I believe these folks should have access to medical care for whatever they can honestly afford. If that resulted in a modest increase in my tax rate, that is acceptable. However, it will also mean necessary reform to our medical industrial complex, especially in the prescription drug sector.

The question each of us needs to answer is, what can I do to improve my health situation? I can change my diet. I can exercise. I can rest. I can be healthy. I am responsible.