Ok I'm a little confused here. I hear you saying you think that it is moral, rational and legal under the constitution of the United States for the federal government to mandate and force an individual to buy health insurance ....
Frankly I am terrified at the lack of common sense, knowledge of history and ignorance of our cultural history as a free people that the voters of this country show.
Sevo, I generally agree with this theme of "personal responsibility to decide and personal responsibility for the consequences and keep govt out of it if we can". However, I think there is a reasonable argument to say that health care does fall into the "for the common good" clause (yes, that phrase is subject to overuse/abuse).
For me, the "common good" is for us all to pool our risk. We all benefit from that. But it has a bit of "tragedy of the commons" to it - we can't all benefit unless we all partake in it. The only way I know to do that is to regulate it. A shining example of a "tragedy of the commons" and a regulated solution was the Clean Air Act which regulated auto emissions. Not perfect, but it really did get the job done, and left most of it up to the free market to decide the "how". The problem would not have improved if just a few people bought "greener" cars.
I would prefer the least invasive form of regulation possible. Like you say, with ins lobbies, lawyers/lawmakers against tort reform, etc, I don't expect that we will get that. We will likely get a mish-mash of micro-management that may be a cure that is worse than the disease.
I hope the above comments conveyed some common sense, knowledge of history and acknowledged that our cultural history as a free people sometimes requires us to balance those freedoms with our responsibilities to our fellow citizens (I'm not "free" to drive 120mph down the road either - and that is good, IMO).
The govts. force you to buy car insurance if you own a car.
And this seems to work OK. Some posters are saying that medical is "different", but I suspect that is because we don't have true competition in health ins. I think the "piece work" issue that has been brought up would go away if there was real competition. Maybe other reforms are needed, but I'd like to start there and see what happens. Take some baby steps while the govt brings all these cost savings to Medicare/Medicaid that they claim they can make. That would build up a bit of trust in their ability to deliver on promises.
With baby steps, we could see how things go, and adapt and expand as needed. I think a "baby step" bill could actually get passed and do some good. The public just has too much distrust of govt (look at polls, esp Congressional approval rates), to have a big complex bill shoved down our throats. So nothing happens. Something would be better than nothing.
-ERD50