Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Hillman: Kiss Your Money And Freedom Goodbye

Former Colorado state senator Mark Hillman discusses the fundamental problem with mandated insurance in his latest analysis, "Kiss your money and your freedom goodbye".

Here's an excerpt:
From a practical standpoint, the requirement to purchase health insurance will start badly and grow even worse. That's because the choice of what kind of insurance to purchase will no longer belong to consumers but to politicians and bureaucrats, relentlessly pressured by lobbyists to add to every conceivable screening or procedure in the nanny-state's wish list to your mandatory policy.

Politicians who resist that pressure and defend your right to choose your own level of coverage will be smeared at election time by dishonest advertisements accusing them of opposing mammograms and maternity care.

Requiring health insurance to pay for preventive screenings is like mandating that auto insurance must pay for oil changes and new tires. Only in health care do we forget that insurance was designed to pay for unforeseen catastrophes, not for predictable events for which we should plan and budget.

...If Congress can order us to use our own money to buy goods or services that we might not otherwise purchase, what's to stop it from ordering us to drive hybrid vehicles, install solar panels on our homes, or eat our vegetables?
(Read the full text of "Kiss your money and your freedom goodbye".)

Hillman is correct to highlight the dual threat to our pocketbooks and our freedoms. Both are violations of our individual rights, and must be opposed as such.