Options, Mandates

I never thought I'd find myself agreeing with the right wing madman Senator Jim Bunning, but the idea of forcing people to buy the product of a profit-making corporation does strike me as UnAmerican and possibly unconstitutional.

That's another reason why the option to buy health insurance from a public plan--the public option--is essential in health care reform.

This was the subject of one of my increasingly rare diaries on Kos, which made the Rec list a few weeks ago. It followed a Paul Krugman column on the issue, linked from the diary. Here's another more recent diary on the subject.

Some point out what a potent issue this could be for the right if people are forced to buy insurance, especially if it all goes south. Sure enough, Republicans on the state level are agitating to ban the individual mandate in "more than a dozen" states. Their "point" is much different from mine, though. They couch this as a government takeover vs. private enterprise, when in fact it is a huge gift to private enterprise: it's the government holding a gun to your head, forcing you to buy insurance company products. A lot of other kinds of companies would be very jealous of this: the ultimate in effective marketing

Apart from the politics, I'm just as concerned about the idea of it, and the precedent. The car insurance precedent is imperfect: people aren't forced to own a car or drive one. But as long as we have bodies, we're subject to the "individual mandate" (except presumably those eligible for Medicare.)

The government forcing people to buy a product is bad precedent, and the only way it makes sense is if people have the choice of a plan from the government itself. Then it's like paying taxes, a legitimate mandate.

So in the healthcare reform argot, I am really opposed to the individual mandate without a public option.

Update: Here's another shock: American public opinion agrees with me:"voters oppose a mandate to purchase private insurance by 64% to 34% but support a mandate with a choice of private or public insurance by 60% to 37%...