December 5th, 2007

SoundBytes 118: Should Government Force People to Buy Health Insurance?

Posted in  SoundBytes podcasts 
Author: SoundBytes || Location: Lewisville, Texas, USA



Should Government Force People to Buy Health Insurance?

Dr. Merrill Matthews of the Institute for Policy Innovation says only if you also want them to pay fines.

As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney passed legislation in 2006 requiring everyone in the state to have health insurance or pay a fine.

And those fines will be expensive: $219 per person for the first year being uninsured, and at least $150 per person a month thereafter.  Actual insurance coverage will likely cost about twice that amount.

Those fines didn’t seem so bad when they were still in the future, but now they’re here.  And some of the other Republican presidential candidates are pointing out that Romney-imposed financial pain.

Romney, along with others, defends such penalties by saying they force the uninsured to be responsible for their own health care.  

Maybe, but they’re also forcing them to be a lot poorer.

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