IS MANDATORY HEALTH INSURANCE ANOTHER TAX? (1359 hits)

President Obama has expressed his approval of Senator Baucus' version of Healthcare Reform proposal. That version includes that healthcare insurance will be mandatory. Of course, the healthcare mandate will not affect or be imposed on anyone with a financial hardship.

This mandatory healthcare is being described as a "tax" by critics. However, President explained to Mr. George Stephanopoulos this past Sunday during an interview that each person must pay their fair share for healthcare in order for the problem to be fixed in the long run. He further expalined that when an individual can afford healthcare premiums such as the reasonable rate that a public option will offer, but then decides to just do without it and take a chance, he or she will create a burden on everybody else who must pick up the tab when individuals receive services from emergency rooms (for example).

In most states across the U.S., I believe it is mandatory that all vehicle owners carry a liability insurance. This was mandated because of theincrease incaraccidents which led toinjuries, but the driver did not have insurance to cover the medical expenses caused by the injury received in a car accident. In Maryland, this is the case. Drivers must have liability insurance protection on their car. When they are in a car accident, the other party can be compensated for their injuries. Prior to this mandatory insurance, if a driver did not have liability insurance, you suffered by footing the bill yourself unless you had insurance coverage. The insurance companies battled over the problem of paying claims while uninsured drivers got off paying nothing, so to speak. The result of this drove up the cost of car insurance and flooded the court system with claims against drivers who then could not afford to pay the judgment. In the long run, it was finally enacted into law that drivers must, must carry liability insurance on their vehicle in order to drive it legally. The same issue of people with insurance being left with higher premiums to cover those who did not have insurance. Statistically, making liability insurance mandatory has saved millions of dollars.

If a person did not keep liability insurance on his or her vehicle, he or she received a penalty until either the car was taken off the road (to prove this, you must turn in your license plates to department of motor vehicle for that car) or liability insurance was obtained. Of course if the liability insurance was not purchased after the penalty started accruing, the state has the right to seize the vehicle's license plate which forces you to pay the penalty and obtain liability insurance in order to put that vehicle back on the road legally.

This is similar to what President Obama's supports for healthcare. Individuals can purchase an affordable plan through the public option which will defray healthcare costs for everybody, or he or she can be penalized.

Is this penalty a tax? Is this penalty fair to impose? Should Americans foot the bill for medical costs incurred by someone who can afford healthcare premiums, but chooses not to have it? Why do people prefer the emergency room for treatments/healthcare?

Ok, what are your thoughts? Posted By: agnes levine
Thursday, September 24th 2009 at 9:23PM
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