I am 38. I have lived half of my adult life without health insurance and I am here to question the wisdom of mandatory healthcare for young people.
I have friends that have no Health Insurance... If the unthinkable happens they will be in trouble, but life is calculated risk.
By carefully managing my risk and luck, I am no longer in this situation.
There is no doubt that Universal Health Care is the ideal. When I was 25 I had a suspended drivers license (unpaid tickets), no health insurance, student loans, and no health problems.
This was a poor choice (and every time I got caught without auto insurance it put me that much further in debt), but it was the one that worked for me. There is no doubt that Universal Health Care would be the ideal, but penalizing young people for thinking they know better will only serve to ensure that those caught without insurance face additional burdens in the form of fines.
How else would the proposed UHC be enforced without fines?
If individuals are penalized for not 'opting in' to a government policy it is not universal... It is almost universal and puts some segments of society further in the hole.
True UHC will not occur as a result of an election or a mandate enforced with penalties, it can only occur of it is provided without conditions.
I am not sure that UHC can occur concurrently with a couple of wars going on. UHC, if it will succeed needs to be provided to all Americans, right?
If Americans 'get help' and choose against that help and then get fined It is not universal.
Just my thoughts.