You Must Buy Insurance

We are being told by congress that everyone must purchase health insurance.  Why?  Well the argument is based on the “logic” that when someone doesn’t have insurance and they go in for medical treatment they cost everyone else because the taxpayers have to pay for it.  That would be a somewhat understandable argument if not for the fact that it leaves some important information out.  First, if you can afford health insurance and you choose not to purchase it and you then incur a medical expense you will have to pay for it - not the taxpayer.  If on the other hand, you are someone who cannot afford to pay for a medical expense that you incur, you are also someone who cannot afford to purchase health insurance.  In which case it will be provided to you by the government.  So, the people who can afford insurance and choose not to purchase it do not cost the taxpayer anything and they will be fined for not purchasing the insurance.  The people who are currently costing the taxpayer money when they incur a medical expense, such as going to the emergency room for a cold, will still get their health care provided by the government through their “insurance policy” and will still cost the taxpayer.

The second part of the argument put forth is to compare health insurance to auto insurance.  Our leaders rationalize it like this.  “In several states people are forced to purchase auto insurance because if they have an accident they must be able to cover the costs. This is just like requiring health insurance will be.” Again, lets put in the rest of the information.  A) Driving is a privilege.  You don’t have to do it and you don’t have to have a car, therefore you don’t have to purchase insurance.  You purchase insurance to help cover your decision to use this privilege and to protect others who are sharing the infrastructure where this privilege is used.  B) It is the states that currently require auto insurance.  By the US constitution and their own state constitution they have the power to do so.  The US constitution nowhere grants the federal government the power to require such, and it certainly does not grant it the power to require the purchase of health insurance.

So now, why do we have to purchase insurance?  Why do we not have the freedom of self-determination?