“For most of the 20th century, people fled the ghosts of communist dictators, and now you are bringing the ghosts back into this chamber,” said Rep Devin Nunes, referring to President Obama’s health care overhaul. In response, CNN pundit Roland Martin said, “That’s just stuck-on stupid.” According to Martin, opponents of Obama’s agenda are “nutcases” who “couldn’t spell communism, socialism, much less identify it.”

My mother and father, who, unlike Roland Martin, have lived under communist despots for 27 and 26 years respectively, did not share CNN’s views on Obamacare. “It’s as if (Rep. Nunes) stole the words from my mouth,” said my father, who fled from Polish communism in 1989. CNN pundits simply cannot comprehend why people who have experienced the receiving end of “social justice” do not respond warmly to statist “solutions” to health care.

If President Obama intended to reduce health care costs, he would pass tort reform to reduce the damage done by ambulance-chasing lawyers, allow people to carry health care across state lines and remove the over 1,900 mandates causing those premiums to increase. More federal employees, more government dependency, more Democrat votes.

Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos, who recently gave the health care overhaul his approval, believes the bill will alleviate the medical center’s budgetary leakage: One in five patients who seek care at VU Medical Center are uninsured and cannot pay and, by federal law, cannot be turned down. And he will profit, at least for a while. The CBO’s trillion-dollar estimate, however, is flawed in that it does not take into account that the idea of “free health care” will lead to massive overuse. Budgetary shortfalls in Obamacare will inevitably lead the federal government to default on payments to providers. Instead of receiving 80 percent of the costs of medical procedures, Zeppos will have to settle for 75, then 55, then 15 and so on.

But fear not, comrades — Indiana, under conservative governance, has already pioneered the solution to Obama’s seizure of the health care industry. Health savings accounts, optional for the state’s public-sector employees, have exploded in popularity since their inception, while dramatically driving down costs. The program will save the state some $8 million dollars in 2010 and has bolstered policy-holders’ salaries by $30 million.

In Russia, where health care is “free” and hospitals are nationalized, doctors are the second-lowest paid profession (after teachers). Professor Konstantin Kustanovich of Vanderbilt remarked of Russian hospitals, “I could tell you horror stories.” Unless Indiana goes to Washington, comrade, that won’t be necessary.

—Mike Durakiwicz is a Vanderbilt U. sophmore.