Health Insurance: An Individual ResponsibilityJune 23, 2009

All persons must have health insurance from the private sector or government sponsored plans

Many have objected to this as a violation of personal choice and freedom.  However, I would suggest that it is a dereliction of civic responsibility (if such a thing still exists in America) to force others (fellow citizens, doctors, hospitals, insurers, government - i.e. taxpayers) to pick up the tab for you when you become very sick or injured (as you WILL at some point in this life).  By mandating coverage with REAL penalties, just as we supposedly do for auto insurance, we put personal responsibility back in the equation.  It has been far too long since that was the case as the government in particular, along with big labor and big business to varying degrees, have sought to remove responsibility from the individual and to displace it to some other entity.  Some view this an unworkable due to the natural tendency of some to avoid personal, civic or moral obligations.  No doubt there will be persons who refuse to obtain coverage – they then will have to suffer the financial consequences that come with such a decision.  Our goal should be to extend the opportunity to obtain coverage to all Americans without restriction.   Our plan will allow that happen.  So called “universal care” in the end, inevitabley, impose restrictions on the responsible to provide a safety net to the irresponsible.  At some point, American ideals of self-reliance and personal responsibility must be brought into the equation. . . obi jo

The Individual Mandate — An Affordable and Fair Approach to Achieving Universal Coverage

Some of the most prominent shortcomings of the U.S. health insurance market are rooted in the fact that the system is a voluntary one. Outside the state of Massachusetts, which recently instituted broad-based health care reform, no one under the age of 65 years is required to obtain health insurance coverage of any kind. Voluntary insurance markets have led to a system centered on segmenting health risk instead of one whose primary mission is ensuring affordable access to necessary and efficiently provided high-quality medical services.  Health insurers engage in many practices that make it difficult for people with health problems to obtain and maintain their coverage; they do so for the express purpose of protecting themselves from the potentially enormous financial consequences of adverse selection.  If we required that every person obtain at least a minimum package of health insurance benefits — that is, issued a so-called individual mandate — we would eliminate adverse selection, and these barriers would become unnecessary and, in fact, indefensible.

The Individual Mandate — An Affordable and Fair Approach to Achieving Universal Coverage –http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMp0904729

All persons must have health insurance from the private sector or government sponsored plans – http://realhealthreform.wordpress.com/the-plan/details-on-the-plan/

Individual Mandates for Health Insurance: Slippery Slope to National Health Care – http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6243

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