U.S. Senator Rand Paul, Free HealthCare & Slavery

by Scotty Reid

US Senator Rand Paul raised the ire of modern slavery abolitionists and liberals in the USA who are hoping to derail his 2016 bid to become the next CEO of the USA. Liberals of course want Hillary Clinton can to take the helm of the world’s most powerful corporation so modern slavery abolitionism can not be high on their list of issues when they are tossing their support to a candidate with a long and sordid history on the issue of modern slavery. The current wave of indignation comes from a social media meme that uses several quotes from a diatribe the presidential contender made against the Affordable Care Act in 2011 where he said making a physician work for free would be tantamount to slavery.

We should note that the Affordable Care Act does not force or conscript doctors to provide free healthcare services but rather it does the opposite in forcing individuals to purchase healthcare insurance from corporations who then in turn pay the doctors for any medical services rendered.

As a rule, modern abolitionists have strict guidelines in defining what is and what is not akin to slavery. A doctored being paid by the US government to provide basic healthcare to poor people through Medicaid or Medicare is not comparable to slavery. Doctors for a very long time have entered into business agreements with the US government just like many other corporations today that get contracts to “render public services”. In fact many doctors and nurses work for corporations that contract with the US govt and the states render so-called “medical care” to over 1 million enslaved individuals in the USA today.

I would argue that in terms of “free healthcare”, every one within the confines of the corporate borders of the USA should be provided free healthcare. In the very least every single person that can trace their family tree to an enslaved person on this continent should be entitled to “free healthcare”.

Here is my reasoning behind this argument. Senator Paul is an ophthalmologist by profession along with his part-time well paid corporate gig as a U.S Senator out of Kentucky. It would be logical to believe that like gynecology, ophthalmology made advances in the field by experimentation that amounted to the torture of those enslaved persons being experimented upon in the name of “science”.

Justice would dictate that since so many people worldwide have suffered in the name of medical science, not a single person should have to pay for it today. To not provide free medical care is to profit off the torture and suffering of countless victims.

Sen. Paul is not alone in his misuse of the application of the term “slavery”. It is offensive to abolitionists because many of those impacted by drugs laws and other victimless “criminal offenses” todays true victims of slavery. They are forced to work for free or are paid slave wages. They are being held by force and many like seen in the state of Florida, are subjected to the same brutal treatment as enslaved person has suffered that most believe are regulated to history books.

Sen. Paul does not need to use metaphors when there are real world examples of slavery in the USA and he knows this because he co-sponsored the “Redeem Act” with Sen. Corey Booker to partially treat the symptoms of systemic slavery.