I don’t understand why people act like health insurance is so radically differently than other insurance. Is it?
Insurance is a form of risk management to hedge against loss. Auto, Life, Homeowners, Unemployment and Health are among the types of insurance you can buy.
I’m generally not required to buy any of those insurances. If I have the title to my home, I’m not required to have homeowners insurance. If I don’t drive a car, I’m not required to carry auto insurance. Why should I be forced to buy health insurance? If I want to take that or any gamble by not buying insurance, isn’t that my choice?
I will admit that by not purchasing health insurance, I could be putting a burden on others if I was admitted to the ER and couldn’t pay, that burden of payment would fall on others. HOWEVER, that burden would be there whether I was forced to carry insurance or not.
If I don’t make enough money to buy this mandatory insurance, then the gov’t will give me tax credits to purchase insurance. Who’s paying for those tax credits? All of the tax payers.
So either we pay the providers/insurance companies via higher premiums to cover loss, or we pay the gov’t via taxes. Forcing (perhaps unconstitutionally) citizens to purchase health insurance won’t solve anything, it will just move where the cost is incurred.
But please, explain why people are treating health insurance so differently.
@nothingconstant: if I show up to the ER and I do not have health insurance or the ability to pay for the care, I cannot be turned away. The hospital will have to absorb the costs of providing my care.
However, those costs will be passed along to the people who do pay in the form of higher charges for services.
Therefore people who can/do pay will pay more to cover those who can’t (which already occurs now)
All of the other insurances that you mentioned are not necessities. Health insurance on the other hand is and that is the big difference. If you don’t want car insurance then don’t drive, if you don’t want homeowners insurance then take the risk, if you don’t want life insurance then don’t buy it. But what about health insurance if you can’t afford it then what die. Going to the ER is not health care it is preventing you from dying. They don’t give you treatment for a chronic disease for example.
Additionally there are problems even with people that have health insurance in that they refuse payment when people become ill. They deny payment even after years of paying premiums. This is grossly unfair, unethical and illegal. That is why we need to regulate and have a public option at the very least.