An example of why a public option would be nice in the United States

[CaptainHaplo]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I assume you're referring to the 1798 Act For the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen, which created a series of hospitals for that segment of workers. Yes, the Congress, which was made up partly of the Framers themselves, passed the law, and President Adams signed it. The modern Veterans Administration considers this to be their founding. Each ship's Master was ordered to collect money from the sailors to pay for it.

Steve - your wrong here.

It was NOT each ships master - it was the master of any ship engaged in international trade. No purely domestic shipping was affected. This is a critical distinction - because as a tax on international trade - it was legal since the Feds were tasked with handling international trade. If a ship's last port was in the US, then it paid no tax or fee. To compare this with an internal, domestic only mandate from government is ludicrous.