In ‘The Waterman’ we find Dr. Tobias Greene, a fictional physician in a small Massachussets town in 1776. Dr. Greene is a well educated and enlightened man for his time, although his tools for healing fall short of modern medicine.
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Dr. Greene is a product of his times, a colonial prepared to live by his own devices. His view of the role of government is to protect his security and to exercise a rule of law that provides for safety and the freedom to pursue his own happiness. In his mind, industry, education and health care are the province of individual citizens and local communities. Dr. Greene would help those in his village who needed it and he surely expected his village would ‘stand to’ for any unfortunate family.
Consistent with this opinion which prevailed at the time, there is no specification for national health care in the Constitution. The government’s role is described succinctly in Section 8 and is proscribed as national defense, regulation of commerce, protection of intellectual property and implementation of a post office and national roads.
We have come a long way, but have we been on the right national road?
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