10-05-2013, 05:47 AM
If you are young and ride a murdercycle, health insurance is advisable. Getting health insurance is also the patriotic thing to do. Take public schools as an analogy. I have no children I am aware of, and yet part of my taxes goes to support public schools. If I, and others like me, were permitted to "opt out" because I have no children then the burden on others would be greater. The Affordable Care Act will work most efficiently with the highest possible participation as that spreads the risk around and, theoretically at least, reduces the contribution of any individual participant. If more Americans have health insurance, we all benefit as a society, just as we all benefit, including me, when American children have equal access to an education.
The choice about whether to enroll in a particular health insurance plan is made a little easier if you remember this is not just about you. It is about the kind of society we want to live. Do want to live in the kind of society where we have to hold a pancake breakfast every time some little uninsured kid down the block gets leukemia? Do we want to hold bake sales and fundraisers for the uninsured musician faced with mounting medical bills over a debilitating illness? They have no such fundraisers in England, Denmark, Canada, France or Japan, just to name a few countries. They don't have to. That is because all participate and share the risk because they don't want to live in a society where some have health care and others do not.
In short, if you believe that every man is an island, you may just want to take the nominal penalty. But if you believe, as I do, that we all live on an island together and have a mutual responsibility to one another, it is your patriotic duty to enroll. You will be living in a nation that acts like a nation, rather than a loose conglomeration of craven jackals. As a side benefit, you will have health insurance.
It should be pointed out, by the way, that they didn't make it easy to opt in. The Hawaii Health Care Connector fell very short and was not ready to go on day one. The guy in charge of that failed enterprise said "We will use October for learning". (What about using Jan-Sept for learning?). He also said something to the effect that he didn't think people would want to sign up right away anyway.
The choice about whether to enroll in a particular health insurance plan is made a little easier if you remember this is not just about you. It is about the kind of society we want to live. Do want to live in the kind of society where we have to hold a pancake breakfast every time some little uninsured kid down the block gets leukemia? Do we want to hold bake sales and fundraisers for the uninsured musician faced with mounting medical bills over a debilitating illness? They have no such fundraisers in England, Denmark, Canada, France or Japan, just to name a few countries. They don't have to. That is because all participate and share the risk because they don't want to live in a society where some have health care and others do not.
In short, if you believe that every man is an island, you may just want to take the nominal penalty. But if you believe, as I do, that we all live on an island together and have a mutual responsibility to one another, it is your patriotic duty to enroll. You will be living in a nation that acts like a nation, rather than a loose conglomeration of craven jackals. As a side benefit, you will have health insurance.
It should be pointed out, by the way, that they didn't make it easy to opt in. The Hawaii Health Care Connector fell very short and was not ready to go on day one. The guy in charge of that failed enterprise said "We will use October for learning". (What about using Jan-Sept for learning?). He also said something to the effect that he didn't think people would want to sign up right away anyway.