I've been thinking about this idea of a 'mandate' to buy health insurance. Fundamentally the federal government is saying that we must purchase a private product or we will be committing a crime.
Now here in California if you own a car you have to own auto insurance as well or you will be breaking the law, but you don't have to own a car and thus are not 'forced' to buy car insurance.
The health care bill is a completely different story. For the first time in history (to my knowledge) the federal government will be forcing people to own a private product or face criminal consequences. What kind of precedence is this really setting?
In the future can the make us buy breakfast cereal so that if at any time we don't have a box of some kind of cereal in our cupboards we can be fined? Sounds absurd, no? Well making us own any private product is just as absurd.
Is it even constitutional to force the citizens of this country to have to buy a product? If its is and it gets passed, what will we be forced to 'buy' in the future? Because, once they show they can legally make us buy stuff, I know they are going to come up with other things the can greedily make us buy. This is very dangerous ground we are treading on!
Beyond this what will the punishment be for not owning health insurance? Will it be an infraction, misdemeanor or felony? Will you owe a fine or go to jail? What about the homeless, the poor and those living on the edge?
Maybe they will be covered by the government, but what about those that make just enough to be over the federal level for aid? Will the cost of insurance send them into poverty?
There are too many questions unanswered questions here! We are entering unfamiliar territory and about to set a dangerous precedent whose ramifications have not been fully thought out.
I don't like this and to be honest it has me very very worried....