Incisive comment on this Economist article: [Conservatives] first proposed the individual mandate and then won the battle. The conservative argument was that if insurance is the mechanism to spread the costs of American health care, then everyone needs to be forced (incentivized) into adopting their responsible share to pay-in over a lifetime, rather than wait until they are ill. The use of insurance as a mechanism for health care gives, by comparison to other insurance markets, the false sense of personal choice that buying or not buying insurance should be an option. I dont have to buy car insurance or house insurance or life (untimely death) insurance if i dont want to drive a car, or own a house, or relieve the burden on a young family of survivors. But your own health isnt really an option. In practice, we all get sick. Legally as well: you show up in the emergency room with a brain aneurism, lacking insurance, and theyll still give you state of the art care, PAID FOR BY THE REST OF US. Insurance is a fantastic mechanism to spread the cost burden for events that are very expensive and very rare. If we only covered cancer care, or aneurisms, insurance would be a credible mechanism. But while cancer is not a certain eventuality for most of us (mercifully), other expensive health issues do eventually overtake nearly all of us at some point, especially those fortunate to survive to an old age. Thus, its not a matter of choosing to opt in or not, rolling the dice on whether an expensive medical procedure is on the horizon. In all likelihood, it is. So, you shouldnt have an option to opt out. You should be responsible and pay for your slice of the pie. Which for the vast majority means paying up front, ahead of time, while youre still healthy and earning a decent wage. Governments have long been in the business of incentivizing responsible behavior. Conscription of soldiers in time of national emergency is rooted in this code of collective responsibility. All civil law is essentially codifying a sufficient minimal level of responsibility in public affairs. IF youre not against traffic laws and traffic tickets, you shouldnt be against forced lifetime payouts for [inevitable] eventual medical expenses. This is the root theory behind the conservative push for the individual mandate to buy health insurance, promoted by the Heritage Foundation, and enacted (successfully) by a Republican administration in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. economist/comment/2168765#comment-2168765
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 20:15:09 +0000
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