The frequent foreign harping about the lack of heath care in the USA seems to represent people talking past each other from different the perspectives of paradigms. In countries such as Canada it is not legally possible to go into private business providing health care – but despite this fact some people are doing it now. To say you don’t have government provided health care is like saying to an American that you don’t have a highway department. An American would ask how you could have roads without a government department that provides them – and this despite the fact that we do in fact have some privately funded and built roads in our country.

But consider what is happening with space launch in the USA. Private firms do provide the vast majority of space launch capability for the country and this has been the case for well over 20 years, when the government-run Space Shuttle program failed. In no other country is this the case. And yet, the Obama administration recently decided that even this small Federal involvement was too much and has chosen to rely on currently nonexistent private capabilities from providers who have yet to prove they can provide anything. But for health care they are effectively reversing the argument. The reason is simple: They can buy far more votes with free health care than they can with manned space exploration.