He who has the gold makes the rules...  There's no such thing as a free lunch...  There are always strings attached... You can't have it both ways.

Many people reacting with surprise and dismay at the myriad pandemic-related edicts, decrees, and mandates have apparently forgotten these timeless aphorisms.  California governor Gavin Newsom's severe restrictions regarding Thanksgiving gatherings is but the latest example of the use of state power to impede personal liberty.

If government, be it federal or state, pays for and/or provides one's health care or insurance, in full or in part, expect it to have a say in personal health-related matters — and more.  The higher percentage of costs covered, the greater that "say" (read: sway) goes.  It's the primary reason American leftists want a single-payer system, AKA Medicare for All.

The same premise holds in the scheme wherein government taxes and withholds from wages amounts needed to pay a retiree's future health care insurance benefits, regardless of whether an earner pays in full for the benefits realized.  Even in such instances, the government has a seat at the table and a hand in the transaction.

Supposed president-elect Joe Biden & Co. know these concepts well and have already signaled that they aren't going to let the current but now waning crisis go to waste.  Biden announced a "COVID-19 task force" and released the names of its members.  He and his chosen "experts" must be pleased with the level of softening up of the citizenry in 2020 to higher degrees of government control.

To make matters worse, expect too a turbocharged infusion of Critical Race Theory into medical matters.  It has been germinating for a while.  Biden's COVID-19 task force announcement referenced his intention to "address the racial disparities that have left communities of color harder hit than others by the pandemic."

But the reasons for those disparities are far from settled science.  A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that it is due to "racial differences in levels of TMPRRS2, a protein in cell membranes that many viruses, including coronaviruses, use to gain access to cells."  Connor Harris, fellow at the Manhattan Institute, wrote a recommended read on the topic in which he concluded:

Critical race theory in medicine and public health, based on a misunderstanding of the concept of race and an inflexible, unfalsifiable dogma of systemic racism, is a huge obstacle to understanding health problems among racial minorities. A public health and medical profession that follows critical race theory will waste time chasing down phantom racism while overlooking genetic and biological factors that could be addressed immediately. Anyone who cares about public health and improving outcomes for nonwhites should help drive critical race theory out of the health sciences.

An even bigger dose of government control of health care combined with the ill effects of Critical Race Theory will result in bad medicine.  And those carping about state directives and orders pertaining to health and personal behavior while government foots or heavily subsidizes their medical bills don't have much of a leg to stand on.  Those on the left know this well.

Image: Pixabay.