Is an Individual Mandate to Buy Health Insurance a Good Idea?
A key aspect of the healthcare reform debate is whether to have an individual mandate legally requiring that each citizen carry health insurance. Critics call it an industry boondoggle, but advocates say it is morally and fiscally necessary. Is such a mandate needed?
Edited by Robert Schlesinger

Yes
By William H. Frist
Heart surgeon, Tennessee Republican, and former U.S. Senate majority leader
I believe in limited government and individual responsibility, cherish the freedom to choose, and generally oppose individual mandates—except where markets fail, individuals suffer, and society pays a hefty price. Let's face it, in a country as productive and advanced as ours, every American deserves affordable access to healthcare delivered at the right time. And they don't have it today....
No
By Dick Armey
Texas Republican, former U.S. House majority leader, and chairman of FreedomWorks
Two hundred billion dollars in new insurance premiums per year. And $463,000,000,000 in taxpayer subsidies over the next 10 years. That's how much health insurance companies could reap if any of the major healthcare bills become law. That's because they all include an "individual mandate"—a requirement that every American purchase health insurance or be fined—a policy that candidate Barack Obama opposed but that President Barack Obama supports....
What do you think?![]()
Reader Comments
Not socialism, communism
The entire purpose of the mandate is to bring a form of Marxism into the U.S.
I agree with the people saying not to call it socialism; let's call the mandate what it is: Marxist medicine.
Per the Encyclopedia of Philosophy at Stanford University:
Communism is described by Marx, in the Critique of the Gotha Programme, as a society in which each person should contribute according to their ability and receive according to their need. This certainly sounds like a theory of justice, and could be adopted as such. However it is possibly truer to Marx's thought to say that this is part of an account in which communism transcends justice, as Lukes has argued.
Individual Mandates: Socialism or Fascism? (Hint: It's Both!)
I understand now why the Caduceus is used as the symbol for medicine in the U.S. The twined snakes represent the medical field itself, the other, government. These two have battled their way up the rod(=life), and are perched to strike at the wings(=we the people) above. If we are required to buy for-profit health coverage, under threat of penalty, how are we any better off than, say, China? Their gov't dictates many aspects of the lives of its citizens to them. But even China isn't as audacious as demanding where personal income is spent, or on which products/services. This is lunacy! It is Fascism writ large, yet Socialism in that ALL MUST OBEY AND COMPLY! Individual Mandates are the most Unconstitutional pile of garbage we have been fed yet! If this provision passes and cannot be defeated, we will all suffer. What's to stop them from mandating other uses for OUR money? Why not an Internet Mandate: Everyone has to get a computer with a high-speed connection, OR ELSE! If this works for them, the powers that be will be lords over all of your purchases, and may eventually demand brand loyalty, why not? This so called healthcare reform is a farce; a blatant money grab designed to kick us when we're down. If they're going to start holding us to things like buying into their schemes, we need to hold them accountable for essential things like our well being, safety, education, etc. Yet these are the very things our elected leaders are now trying to profit from! A real and viable Public Option is the only hope we have of moving toward Universal Heath Care, This is our most desperate need, regardless of what the Socialist-scremers say. However, we cannot allow this Individual Mandate to move forward at any cost, even if defeating the mandate means sacrificing that Public Option. The proposed Mandate is poison in the well. We desperately need reform. Not Baucus' or Frist's or Armey's shenanigans. We have come, some of us dying, in good faith to our government to plead for accessible and fair treatment for all. They have given us a labyrinth of false choices and fed us lies, all while working behind our backs with the very monstrosity which has contributed to our ills by doing its bidding. We have entrusted our lives to our government; all the while she has betrayed us by lying with our enemies and handing over our wealth to them. Yea even with both hands!
Who will pay?
Health care costs money. They only question is who will pay?
You can pay with your cash.
You can buy health insurance (pre-need) so that you are covered when the need arises.
You can let the other taxpayers pay your bill for you.
Which is the moral choice?
All other questions are windowdressing.
If you don't want to be required to buy health insurance, you should be prepared to be turned away at the doctor's office or hospital.
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