Mandatory care?

As the Democratic presidential candidates rush to outdo each other by highlighting their passion for socialized medicine -- they prefer the more benign term "universal health care" -- it may be difficult for any of them to top John Edwards.

Over the Labor Day weekend, Mr. Edwards told an audience in Tipton, Iowa, that his health care plan will require mandatory visits to the doctor.

"It requires that everybody be covered," he said. "It requires that everybody get preventive care. If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK."

The exact details of Mr. Edwards' plan have yet to be revealed. Perhaps he misspoke during his Tipton shindig.

But rarely has a liberal politician painted in such clear and stark terms the assault on individual freedom inherent in most proposals to nationalize this country's health care system.

Will we have federal agents knocking down doors to arrest those who fail to schedule annual physical exams with their government doctor? And if the Edwards administration demands that every American be forced to see a physician from time to time, what will be the consequences if a patient ignores medical advice concerning unhealthful behaviors or habits? Mandatory confinement and treatment? Even more Draconian limits on individual behavior -- smoking, drinking, eating or any behavior some bureaucrat deems "risky" -- than Democrats and their Nanny State allies now embrace?

If we are no longer free to make personal choices concerning the time and manner of our own health care, we are spiraling toward tyranny.

That this is apparently lost on one of the primary contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination should trigger shivers in freedom-loving Americans.