Health Insurance Articles
Do We Need A Health Insurance Mandate Like Auto Insurance?
2009-09-22
As the health care debate rages in Washington, D.C., the tangible benefits and problems of some sort of government-imposed mandate keep entering into the discussion. A proposed mandate might work similarly to the current government system for car insurance. That is, individual states would set terms for health insurance coverage, but every United States citizen would be required to have some form of health insurance. It would be up to each citizen how far above the insurance requirements they would go in his or her coverage.
There would obviously have to be some key differences from how car insurance is dealt with. For example, having a car is a privilege, but having a life is certainly a necessity, so low-income citizens would need to be offered a safe and comprehensive form of government-sponsored health care. Opponents argue that this will encourage low-income individuals to remain in lower-income brackets. However, this argument doesn't stand up if health care costs are kept low for the country as a whole. Penalties for not having health insurance under a mandate could range from fines to taxation, but would have to be less severe than the penalties for driving a car uninsured. There would also be a cost for whatever government agency was chosen or developed to assess penalties and track health insurance throughout the country identifying individuals who haven't purchased the required health insurance.
Mandated health care might serve to drive costs down by driving up demand for insurance. That is, in essence, the entire reason that the debate in health care is going on. Costs right now are prohibitively high, and proponents of government intervention see a government mandate as the only way to keep expenses from rising and to push costs down to an affordable level. The other possible benefits of a health insurance mandate would be notable, especially from a humanitarian point of view. More health insurance coverage as a whole might have the effect of lowering costs for hospitals. It would also save lives and prevent Americans from entering into bankruptcy because of high health care costs.
Ultimately, a health insurance mandate would need to be combined with other legislation, like aggressive tort reform and moderate to heavy government regulation of private health insurance companies, to be effective. But, done correctly, it would be an extremely powerful and useful way to solve the problems that America is facing on the health insurance front. Done incorrectly, the possible costs of a mandate would outweigh the benefits for all Americans, so it's certainly a subject to consider as sweeping health reform is approached by the U.S. Congress. It's worth consideration from Americans, whose voting and write-in power can help laws pass or prevent them from taking hold.
