Yesterday I was scrolling through my Facebook News Feed while I was making dinner, as I often do, and came across a posting from a friend that talked about the implementation of the new Health Care Exchanges in Oregon. As I am sure you already know, dear reader, this is part of the dreaded Obamacare. Much of the article she posted mentioned things that I had already heard: those in the state who are presently uncovered will be able to access tons of “affordable” coverage options on the website (even though its “go live” is in six months and they have yet to even develop a beta testing plan), how Oregon’s eventual goal is to pay the new Coordinated Care Organization’s (CCO’s) by outcomes, and how the plan includes sending state health workers into the homes of children with repeated visits to emergency rooms for chronic ailments to educate the parents of these children on how to care for them.

Now, that last one sounds nice, right? When you think about it though, as a parent, would YOU want a state healthcare worker coming into your home to “educate” you about how to best care for your child? Especially when you take into account bills before the Oregon legislature like HB3200-the bill which allows searches of law abiding citizens homes by police without warrants or probable cause under the guise of “gun safety”. Oregon is starting to sound more and more like a police state, is it not? As the parent of a child with multiple food allergies-which can cause chronic conditions-I can tell you that if a state healthcare worker showed up on my front porch demanding entry into my home I would have serious reservations about letting them in. In fact, my automatic reaction to my friends status was “Oh HELL NO”.

The frightening part of all of this is that when one lives in a police state-there is no telling the state “No” without suffering serious repercussions. Will the state decide to seize your child if you deny these healthcare workers into your home? Will this practice discourage parents from seeking care for their child which may in fact achieve the exact opposite of what this new system is meant to do, reduce healthcare costs and achieve better outcomes? There are too many frightening possibilities in this scenario to ponder without becoming incredibly paranoid.

As someone who has lived abroad, and has travelled extensively, I can tell you that the freedoms we have here are precious. Until recently, I had yet to run into a policeman clad in tactical gear and toting AR-15’s at our airports, but in some parts of the world that is par for the course. Invasions of the state into daily life are also par for the course in other countries, but our Bill of Rights, Constitution and the rule of law are meant to protect Americans from these types of invasions. As citizens, we need to become actively involved in our government, and in this case, become actively involved in opposing the over reach of our government. Write to your state representative, your Congress people, our Governor and tell them that you oppose invasions by the state into your home. If you do not live in Oregon, do some research into what Obamacare is bringing to your state. Is it facilitating state intrusion into your home under the guise of healthcare? I urge you to get involved. As Ronald Reagan famously stated “Freedom is always one generation away from extinction”. Don’t let your generation be the one who has to answer to the ones that follow for losing ours.