Freedom=Fear and Helplessness. That's What Republican Opposition to Health Care Reform Equals.

This story pretty much says it all:

Natalie Ragus: The same week a U.S. District judge in Pensacola, Fla. declared President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill unconstitutional, a doctor began testing me for Reiter’s Syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that causes debilitating joint inflammation and a host of other symptoms. 

Tuesday, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) introduced legislation Tuesday that would block implementation of the ballyhooed Patient Protection and Affordable Care. 

That same day, I went to the eye doctor with symptoms of iritis, inflammation due to my body attacking its own iris— another classic sign of Reiter’s Syndrome. 

…what worries me is that my student health insurance expires in May, when I’ll graduate with a master’s degree in journalism. 

If I can’t find a job as a staff reporter at a newspaper or Web site by May, it could mean my very health. Because of my disease, I likely won’t find an insurance company willing to sell me an individual plan, and even if I do, it won’t be at a price I can afford on a freelance writer’s salary. 

Suddenly, the health care debate has become deeply personal, the stakes perilously high
The judge went on to state … “The healthcare market is…” 

A market? 

My life and health do not constitute a market for insurers’ speculation and profit. But, sadly, here in the United States, they do. 

Republicans, Tea Partiers, and their ilk love to bring up the concept of freedom from tyranny when it comes to the health care debate. They throw tantrums like 2-year-olds, striking fear into the hearts of the American public with claims that reform will lead to health care rationing. And yet they fail to recognize that insurance companies do exactly that … To me, freedom means undergoing treatment for my medical problems without fear of financial ruin. To me, freedom means having the ability to choose between building up a successful freelance writing business or taking a job as a staff reporter with an established news organization. 

Here I live in the richest country in the world that prides itself on the freedom of its people, and yet I worry about how I’m going to make it to the doctor if I can’t find a job within the next three months. 

Being sick feels makes one feel powerless enough. 

However, knowing that a greedy stranger beholden to equally faceless shareholders has the power to decide whether or not I can see a doctor makes me feel utterly helpless. 

That, to me, constitutes the exact opposite of freedom.