The latest and greatest approach being tried by advocates of socialized medicine? The trigger. It’s an appropriate analogy, because giving government the keys to the entire practice of medicine, forevermore, is the same as pulling the trigger on a gun — aimed at yourself. The details are still emerging, but the details will not matter. Basically, the “compromise” being proposed is one of having a bad bill passed without the presence of a “public option” — while requiring a public option if certain conditions are not met. Essentially, this means that when what’s left of the marketplace in medicine, already hampered by government subsidies and restrictive regulations, does not perform the impossible, government will have the green light to take over medicine. This is an even more dishonest approach than the “public option” in the first place. As stated here and elsewhere, a “public option” means letting a struggling semi-private marketplace for non-seniors “compete” with free health care for all, piling restrictions and fines on the private sector, thereby forcing everyone into a government plan in a matter of several years. That’s no option. Since a majority of people are not buying it, we’re now told, “OK, no public option — unless the marketplace fails.” Earth to socialists: We don’t have a marketplace. We haven’t had anything close to a private marketplace for medicine and health insurance in many, many decades. What we have is a severely hampered marketplace in which the health insurance premiums of non-seniors are driven up by the bureaucracy and inefficiency of Medicare for the elderly, who naturally use the most medical care. This is like holding a gun to a surgeon’s head and saying, “Perform — or else!” and when he doesn’t do the impossible — or even if he does — still shooting him. As Ayn Rand wrote, morality ends where a gun begins. So does the practice of health care. So don’t let them point a loaded gun at you, because — believe me — they’re going to shoot it, one way or another.