I consider myself to be of a Libertarian/Republican frame of mind, but the Republican stance on the health care debate has me flummoxed.

Call me confused or out of touch, but could a real Republican explain to me why Obamacare’s mandate that all people purchase health insurance is wrong?

The government requires us to pay for Medicare and Social Security, which in effect, saves others the cost of having to support us in our dotage. What is so different? If Obamacare is struck down as unconstitutional, won’t Medicare and Social Security be next?

The issue is that the government is requiring people to buy something, and that sticks in their craws. The idea here, it seems, is to get more people off the dole and to become responsible for themselves. This would seem to me to be an idea picked from a Republican’s heart.

So, in one of their biggest hypocrisies yet, by being against the insurance mandate, Republicans are actually making it necessary for people to rely on either government services or hospital charity. That, in the end, costs every person with health insurance more money in the form of higher premiums or costs the government more money in subsidies paid to state for Medicaid and welfare programs.

See why I’m confused?

Ed McCaffrey, Rumford