Republicans do not want the country to know what is in their health care bill.

[Dill]

(06-19-2017, 09:44 PM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: I don't want Single Payer or anything near it since I see government run healthcare only as a means of absolute control over the populace...eventually. 

Healthcare can be tied to everything from how you live, what you eat and if you exercise to what job you have, how much electricity you use and the type of car you drive. Since the government controls your healthcare, they can tell you what to do all in the name of the greater good and to save money which lowers your cost and those around you.

Of course, those with a lot of money can tell the government to shove it and those who make the laws can opt out for the rest of their lives. Seriously, what do the "Regular" people really know? The Catholic Church did it for centuries, Communist countries did it for decades and are still doing it...telling people how to live and think. Hell, this is a made up percentage but at least 95% of the American public are already told how to think and act. The other 4.75% are demonized as whack jobs and that .25% are actual whack jobs.

Don't believe me about being told how to think and act? Just read this board[url=https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011731790470&fref=ufi][/url]

After reading this board, I also question what the "regular" people really know.  Large numbers do appear to be "told what to do."

However, I don't see "government" doing this. Unlike your examples, Communist countries and the Catholic Church, the US is a liberal democracy. We elect leaders and can recall them. "They" are us.

In a country in which elections change governments, it is hardly possible to control media and carry out propaganda campaigns as governments in totalitarian regimes can.

Other public organizations are happy to fill in the vacuum, however--churches, corporations, parties, and partisan media.

Since WWII especially, some of these organizations have worked together to convince large numbers of "regular" people that the interests of Big Business (and those who own them) are their interests. People who would challenge this identity of interests are "sheeple," brainwashed by socialism, people who want the government to take care of them. The regular folks who think for themselves are encouraged to hate the transparent "dictator" Obama and embrace the secretive Trump as a non-politician who thinks like they do. They believe tax cuts for the rich will help them, along with deregulation of business.

When it comes to healthcare, paying double what other advanced industrial countries pay for health care is acceptable so long it prevents a government "takeover" of healthcare. It would be terrible if the government we control could also control our health care costs--e.g. by regulating a free market of insurance companies who profit by refusing coverage to people with pre-existing conditions..  Insurance companies are very happy that so many Americans resist Communism and think for themselves.