By Mark David BlUm, Esq.

The left wing media machine is now creating a new meme saying that people are declining to sign up for the ACA because they are trying to sabotage it. The right wing media take that argument further saying that people aren't buying because they are trying to force a single payor in place.

Well as one who has not jumped aboard the ACA with arms akimbo and still think it will collapse under its own weight, I confess ... yes I am holding out for a better deal. The only solution is a single payor program. Obamacare is nothing but a welfare program for insurance companies. By staying out of the shared risk pool, I contribute a small part of the stress on the implementation and survival of the ACA. Though I wish others would join me, I don't expect anybody to take the risks that I do. But I stand on principle, and though I may stand alone, I take comfort in knowing that my opinion is heard and valid.

The debate whether medical care should be universal and a right inherent to every citizen is over. The only opposition to it are the relics and old folks who equate socialism with Stalin, Mao, and Castro and cannot separate the political paradigm from the economic model and those who have abused it in the past.

Here it is: If you are standing on a corner and are robbed, you have a socialized police force ready to come to your help.

You have a socialized criminal justice system and prison system to deal with threats and wrongdoers. We do this because we realize that at any given time, any one of us could be a victim of a crime and need help.

If your house is burning down, again we have a socialized fire rescue agency to come and help. Again, we do this because we all realize that any one of us could be at risk of fire and we provide this service to all for our own protection.

If your child cannot read, then we have a socialized educational system because we all realize the value of an education and how it betters the nation.

If we need plumbing, roads, plowing of snow, we have socialized infrastructure to help everyone because we realize that as a community we need to be able to move about.

But, if you are standing on a corner and you see a fellow American drop to the ground suffering from a heart attack, all we do is stand there saying, “boy, I sure hope he has good insurance.”

Is it me or can we all accept the reality that sooner or later we are all going to need medical care. Providing ‘universal’ or ‘socialized’ medicine and cutting out the insurance companies will shift medical care to the same status as fire, police, courts, infrastructure, and education. Medical care should be seen as fundamental and basic a human need as any other.

Investing in the health and educational well being of everybody is in all our best interests. It is what our children desperately need. Us old people too need it. Having a well educated healthy population is the fuel that drives the economic capitalist engine. If we miss this opportunity, we may never know how many Henry Fords and Bill Gates and Jonas Salks never got out of the starting blocks because of lack of education or lack of health care. While socialism enforced at gunpoint disables the best to enable the pack to keep up, I say we must assist the slow runners to get as close to the pack as possible. Don't hobble the frontrunners as we now do. Everybody needs to chip in to bring up the rear; including the front runners. We are all in this together and the sooner we start practicing that famous Christian ethic and implement a single payor health care system, the sooner we will be able to advance and move on as a society.