What Happened to Choice?

Fortunately, there is not the slightest chance that John Edwards will ever occupy an office of importance in the United States. Associated Press reports:

TIPTON, Iowa - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.

"It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care," he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. "If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK."

He noted, for example, that women would be required to have regular mammograms in an effort to find and treat "the first trace of problem." Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, announced earlier this year that her breast cancer had returned and spread.

Edwards said his mandatory health care plan would cover preventive, chronic and long-term health care. The plan would include mental health care as well as dental and vision coverage for all Americans.

While some are understandably struck (nearly) dumb by the notion of mandatory mental health examinations conducted by the Federal Government, we are more intrigued by the possibilities growing out of the more mundane mandatory examinations. What will those who know best do when they have precise data (and individual identification) of all parents who smoke? Of all middle-aged men whose cholesterol is too high? Of all citizens whose weight is not in compliance with Federal guidelines?

Why is it that the Left always thinks these sorts of things will work out well?

Personally, I'd much rather let Dick Cheney read my mail that to have federal bureaucrats decide what drugs I'll be permitted (or required) to take.