I think health care is fundamental to giving kids a fair chance, but I would like to see a discussion of the wealth level at which a parent should be required to buy their kids some health insurance. The Frosts may not have been at that point, but I do think parents have to take some responsibility for their children's well-being and to make some priorities in regard to it. When I was very little, Mom and Dad lived with two kids in a one-bedroom apartment that got rattled by the train when it went by, but we did have health insurance. They had to do hard things -- my dad was working two jobs and was very rarely around to help my mom deal with two small children; their car was unreliable and their neighborhood not a great one -- and I think that the government should mandate that people make some of those difficult choices in order to provide their children with necessities, including health insurance.
I don't want to see any child go without health insurance, but I also kind of recoil at parents who could hold a job with health benefits for their children (i.e. are educated, hireable and in a decent economy), but choose to start a business or otherwise work without insurance. That I would want the government to interfere in these choices probably marks me as a true statist, but I think once you have chosen to raise children, you've foreclosed some of your other options.
well, what he actually said was almost as bad...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.harvarddems.com/node/2949
And please, everyone keep in mind the political difference between West Iowa and East Iowa.
ReplyDeleteHad to defend my fair (half) state.
I think health care is fundamental to giving kids a fair chance, but I would like to see a discussion of the wealth level at which a parent should be required to buy their kids some health insurance. The Frosts may not have been at that point, but I do think parents have to take some responsibility for their children's well-being and to make some priorities in regard to it. When I was very little, Mom and Dad lived with two kids in a one-bedroom apartment that got rattled by the train when it went by, but we did have health insurance. They had to do hard things -- my dad was working two jobs and was very rarely around to help my mom deal with two small children; their car was unreliable and their neighborhood not a great one -- and I think that the government should mandate that people make some of those difficult choices in order to provide their children with necessities, including health insurance.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to see any child go without health insurance, but I also kind of recoil at parents who could hold a job with health benefits for their children (i.e. are educated, hireable and in a decent economy), but choose to start a business or otherwise work without insurance. That I would want the government to interfere in these choices probably marks me as a true statist, but I think once you have chosen to raise children, you've foreclosed some of your other options.