Health insurance to drive?

“WASHINGTON ^[1] — A federal judge in Virginia threw out the controversial plank of President Obama’s health-care law that requires Americans to buy coverage… In a ruling issued yesterday Judge Henry Hudson struck down the so-called “individual mandate” provision as unconstitutional. He said the federal government does not have the authority to order people to purchase coverage.”

This sounds right. Can we really force citizens to purchase financial services? That is essentially what the new health-care law does by fining adults who do not purchase health insurance by 2014.

The key word here though is force. In order to cover more people, keep healthcare a free market institution, and keep insurance premiums down we need to expand the pool of healthy people paying in to the system. We should not force Americans to purchase health insurance, but we should strongly encourage them. Like I said back in October 2009 ^[2], they should treat health insurance like car insurance, where as you cannot operate a motor vehicle (which is proven year after year on American highways perfectly capable of disabling otherwise healthy persons in a single instant) without health insurance to cover the civic risks. Or maybe you could require basic coverage to purchase a home or start a business?

And like car insurance, there should be affordable discount plans marketed to healthy Americans, in order to meet the minimum requirements for institutional privileges like driving, or owning a home, or starting a business. We need more people to pay into healthcare and we need to keep it a private enterprise. Again, the key is to encourage, not to force.

What about the people that say we would should NOT expand coverage for more Americans? I am not so cynical to think that these people do not care about the low income sick and disabled. I understand that they presume the uninsured are given exceptions and options anyway. And for the most part they are right. However, unpaid-for emergency room visits and critical care by the uninsured are more costly to the system than just expanding the insurance pool. Should be interesting how it plays out. I applaud the judge, but condemn the blind partisanship he has to rule on and is sure to follow.