Mind Over Sports

I was speaking to a young man who played football for a club team and found out that the team owner did not provide insurance for him to cover any kind of injuries he might experience as a result of his playing. And the thought occurred to me that perhaps “health care reform” was not really such a bad idea, not only for the millions of children in our country who are uninsured, but also for this young athlete. And though he’s playing at his own risk (and because of his love of the game) I’m sure if he became severely injured he would not have the funds to pay for his own hospital care. On the other hand I noticed recently that U.S. Senator Roy Blunt underwent a successful coronary stent implantation in January of this year, after doctors located a blockage in front of his heart during a physical examination. Since Blunt is an avid opponent of “health care reform” providing all Americans with the same type of health care he enjoys, one has to wonder if he allowed the federal government to pay for his stent implant or, realizing how wrong that would be, he dug into his own pocket in order to save the government money. I doubt that it was the latter. If all of our US Congressmen and US Congresswomen and US Senators had to pay for their own health care insurance, instead of having the federal government provide theirs free, you might see fewer of them opposing Universal Health Care. Perhaps the time has come for one of our federal legislators to introduce a bill that requires all members of Congress to be responsible for their own health insurance. And by the way, I don’t see much difference between a mandate requiring everyone to have health insurance and a mandate requiring everyone to have automobile insurance.  Am I missing something?