A libertarian friend of mine just posted the following on Facebook:
"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelives and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical."
-- Thomas Jefferson
With the footnote:
LIKE if you believe that the government mandating that you purchase a product hurts Economic Freedom.
Setting aside the point that Jefferson was talking about things like Tax Money going to pay for Churches and not Tax Money going to pay for your Doctor; setting aside the greater point that Facebook is not a good place to engage in substantive discussion; keeping in mind that we get along well enough that I can yank his chain occasionally without him getting mad at me; this is what I replied:
Hypothetical situation: Joe Virtuous does not have Heath Insurance, because he is young, heathlty and has no bad habits and therefore doesn't need it. Unfortunately, he gets run over in a traffic accident by one of those godless Lib'ruls. He gets taken to the Emergency Room and gets treated; but he can't afford to pay for the ER.
So, does the hospital eat the costs? No, the hospital shrugs and raises it's rates across the board to pay for all the other Joe Virtuouses who can't pay. That way they get reimbursed by the Insurance Companies.
So do the Insurance Companies take a hit? No, they've already raised their rates so that they can pay off the inflated hospital charges and still make a profit.
So who pays? You do. You and everybody else who pays for health insurance.
But when you see your insurance rates go up, you can smile and shed a tear of gratitude that at least the money you're paying isn't going to the Government. Because that would be Tyranny.
The Personal Mandate in Obama's Health Care Act is taking away your freedom to NOT pay into the system and therefore let those other suckers with Health Insurance cover your own health needs.
We'll see how he resonds.