The Individual Mandate

Should each American be required to possess health insurance? Should the government impose an individual mandate and what measures should be use to enforce it? These are very critical questions which cut directly to the core of our society. As a proponent of limited government and personal liberty I naturally lean away from federal imposition into our personal lives. But I believe that mandatory health insurance for every individual should be the law.

People should not have the option of being without health insurance and then if they are in an accident or are the unfortunate victim of a serious disease show up at the emergency room looking for the rest of society to pay for their care. If they want to take the gamble with their own money, fine. But to take a gamble with the money of those who are cautious and do purchase health insurance is unfair and should not be tolerated. If someone decides not to purchase insurance and then gets sick he loses his gamble and either should have to pay for his care or if he cannot afford it not receive care. But since in this country refusing care based on money is not an option he receives care at the expense of everybody else.

Once the mandate is in place, the minimum health plan required should be one that protects society from having to provide for an individual’s unexpected or catastrophic condition. If a person doesn’t want to be covered for obesity treatment, in vitro fertilization, abortion, drug rehabilitation or other similar treatments then he should be able to find a bare bones catastrophic plan that excludes such coverage. Ultimately, he is required to hold insurance not for himself but to protect society from him becoming a burden in the case of illness. This is why mandatory insurance is acceptable. Not to force the individual to purchase something he may or may not want to protect himself but to protect everybody else from having the burden of taking care of that person in case of illness.

This insurance plan would probably be fairly inexpensive, especially for an otherwise healthy 20 year old. My worry is that BO will force people into specific types of plans. In fact, it will be the government that determines which plans are acceptable. This is where I return to my limited government position. The government should mandate that the minimal plan acceptable to be a catastrophic plan that protects society. Once that is covered then anything beyond that is a personal choice.

The personal mandate would not be in place to baby the individual on how government believes he should run their lives. But rather it is in place to protect society from the individual and to not allow the individual to gamble with public money.
It is a mandatory protection of society not an individual mandate to protect oneself.