Shurts on Mandatory Insurance

The April 11, 2008 Denver Post posted the following LTE by Russell Shurts in its online edition:

Piling on Poor Coloradans

In football, in order to forestall injury a player is penalized when he piles on to a player who is already down. In politics a government that has repeatedly injured it's citizens with it's past actions is not only not penalized for the harm it has already done, but is encouraged to pile on to it's citizens a little bit more.

Such is the situation we find ourselves in with our legislature about to pass a bill (Senate Bill 217) that will make it a crime for you to not buy health insurance.

Once again the government in addressing a problem which it is solely responsible for; the skyrocketing cost of health care due to its decades-long continuing takeover of the health care market, will make the situation worse by piling on ever more restrictions.

After over a century of evidence that the more you restrict people's free choices in any particular market, the more expensive and less available everything becomes in that market, our socialistic leaders STILL think that the next batch of restrictions is going to make it all wonderful.

It won't, and several years from now when this latest intrusion into our lives has made health care even more costly and less available than it is now, the same people who are ramming this bill through will be demanding ever more power to dictate what your health care choices will be and how much they will cost.

When this cycle will end is when you/we the people decide to go back to the principles of freedom that this country started with. Until then 'enjoy' the consequences of your government’s latest trampling on your rights and intrusion into your lives.

Russell W. Shurts, Centennial