Among the greatest achievements of our American ancestors was the separation of church and state. Among the greatest things that Americans today could accomplish is the same thing with respect to healthcare.
Imagine if the Americans who founded our country had instead implemented a system based on government control, management, provision, and regulation of religion, both at the federal level and the state level.
Today, there would be all sorts of criticisms being leveled at President Trump, Congress, governors, mayors, and legislative bodies over how they were mismanaging the crisis within the churches.
Imbued with a deeply deferential mindset, some people would support whatever federal and state officials were doing to resolve the crisis.
Others would have vehement disagreements over what officials were doing. They would be criticizing and condemning the plans and steps that officials were implementing to resolve the crisis. They would be exasperated that officials weren’t adopting their plans for resolving the crisis.
Our ancestors’ solution was to simply remove religious decisions entirely from the purview of federal officials. Later, thanks to the Fourteenth Amendment, state officials were also barred from involving themselves with matters of religion.
Thus, notice that no one is criticizing federal and state officials for their missteps in managing, regulating, providing, or interfering with religious matters. That’s because the power to manage, regulate, provide, and interfere with religious matters has been totally removed from both the federal and state governments.
That’s precisely what we need to do in the area of healthcare. We need to remove the power of both the federal government and the state governments to manage, regulate, provide, or interfere with healthcare.
That way, no longer would people involve themselves in endless debate over the mistakes that officials make to resolve healthcare crises. Healthcare issues would be left entirely to freedom and the free market, just as religious matters are.
So, in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, Americans today would be wise to think at a higher level, just as people back in the late 1700s were doing, when the country was being established. I propose the following amendment to the Constitution: “Neither the federal nor the state governments shall provide, manage, or regulate healthcare or abridge the free exercise thereof.”
The separation of healthcare and the state is the only way to bring an end to the decades-old, ongoing healthcare crisis. It is a necessary prerequisite to a healthy, prosperous, harmonious, and free society.
