Dear Rep. Gowan,

According to this AP story, you seem to believe that real conservatives
must opposed Medicaid expansion and I think that this is mistaken.
I can offer the thoughts of 2 people who most would say are conservative.
Winston Churchill and F. A. Hayek.

In light of these remarks, I hope you reconsider your opposition.

Sincerely,

Steven M. Jandreau
Tucson, AZ


Churchill:
In March 1944, he eloquently explained his views on medicine and society to the members of Royal College of Physicians in London:
The discoveries of healing science must be the inheritance of all. That is clear. Disease must be attacked, whether it occurs in the poorest or the richest man or woman simply on the ground that it is the enemy; and it must be attacked just in the same way as the fire brigade will give its full assistance to the humblest cottage as readily as to the most important mansion. Our policy is to create a national health service in order to ensure that everybody in the country, irrespective of means, age, sex, or occupation, shall have equal opportunities to benefit from the best and most up-to-date medical and allied services available.
Hayek:
This passage is from The Road to Serfdom, page 125:
Nor is there any reason why the state should not assist individuals in providing for those common hazards of life against which, because of their uncertainty, few individuals can make adequate provision. Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance, where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks, the case for the state helping to organise a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong. There are many points of detail where those wishing to preserve the competitive system and those wishing to supersede it by something different will disagree on the details of such schemes; and it is possible under the name of social insurance to introduce measures which tend to make competition more or less ineffective. But there is no incompatibility in principle between the state providing greater security in this way and the preservation of individual freedom.