THERE ARE TWO institutions that almost every American encounters in his life. They are the hospital and the school, the doctor’s office and the classroom.

Our central government already holds the school captive. Whatever local autonomy still exists for communities and their school boards is just window dressing. Real autonomy has been swept away by monopolistic government control. It’s true we are not forced to send our children to government schools, but we are still forced to pay for them and we are denied the free market and funds in which to cultivate alternatives. We are also compelled to live in a society shaped by the ideology taught in our schools. It creeps into every facet of our world, an invasive weed in every garden. There is no more powerful influence on the minds and character of our neighbors.

That’s why the government takeover of American health care is so significant. Here is the other major industry we must all encounter in a very personal way. Here is the other place where we interact as citizens and express our shared values. There will be almost no escaping it. Even those who can buy their way out of government-controlled medicine will still be affected by its values. The most important objection to nationalized health care is irrelevant to our physical health. Whether we can get the same kind of care from doctors amd hospitals is an important issue, but not the most dire one. The most pressing objection concerns not body, but spirit. We must feed from the hand of the state. We must eat the same gruel and profess the same barren religion. That affects our souls. Perhaps people in other countries like it that way, but it makes us no longer Americans.

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