This thread is skirting a fundamental discussion: the Free market (TM) has its limits, and those include being used to manage and regulate a nation’s resources. These include not only natural resources like coal and oil, but other vital resources like clean air and clear water.

And, in the end, the health of America’s people is a valuable resource: one on which the nation’s well being directly depends. Is it worth leaving this valuable resource entirely in the hands of profit-oriented comapnies?

We choose to leave it to a great estent in their hands, but not entirely. Now there is an attempt being made to remove more of it from their direct control.