Should the Government Mandate Health Insurance?
March 10th, 2010 | 
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Complete video at: fora.tv By comparing health care to income tax and car insurance, Congressman Michael C. Burgess (R-TX) argues against a federally mandated public option. He asks, “What if instead of mandates, we looked at building programs that people actually wanted?” —– Rep. Michael C. Burgess, MD (R-TX), and Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA), each offer their opinion on how health care ought to be reformed and how health care will be reformed, as well as the challenges reform faces in Congress. Afterward, John Reichard, Editor of CQ healthbeat, moderates a joint question and answer session. – Cato Institute After spending nearly three decades practicing medicine in North Texas, Congressman Michael C. Burgess, MD, was first elected to Congress in 2002, and re-elected in 2004, 2006, and most recently in 2008. Dr. Burgess serves on the prestigious House Energy and Commerce Committee and three of its subcommittees: Health Care, Energy & Environment, and Oversight & Investigations. He is also a member of the bicameral Joint Economic Committee, and Dr. Burgess recently founded and is Chairman of the Congressional Health Care Caucus. John Reichard – John Reichard is current editor of Congressional Quarterly’s healthbeat. Washington healthbeat was founded in 2001 by John Reichard, whose 20-year career in Washington specialty publications included editing stints with mcgraw-Hill, Thomson and other organizations.
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oh and america is no longer a republic, it is a socialist police state, so time for a political revolution, we must take back our country from the Euro trash marxists that have taken it over, personally i think we should round up every damn marxist and send them back to europe or china (depending on where they originally came from) in body bags!
oh and all you marxists and enemies of liberty remember
JESUS LOVES YOU!
BUT I DONT!
BYE BYE!
also serbia must take back kosovo and i will support russia and serbia in the next balkin war against the nato pigs. because islam is evil and i will support serbia s bid to kick out every damn muslim that is pissing on christian lands in the balkins! I will not be tolerant to islam, Serbia and kosovo are Orthadox christian owned and controlled forever more, as a christian myself, i will back up fellow christians around the world in this holy war that was started by islam.
personally i have already decided that im gonna bust a cap in the ass of the first cop that trys to give me a ticket for not having health insurance. UP YOURS D.C. and i am also in a income tax revolt, im not longer filing or paying. COME GET ME! and i will pay you IN HOT COPPER! the 7.62×39mm kind, if you know what i mean (DEATH to the NWO, and the POLICE STATE) i am the kalishnakov cowboy, i am plotting to overthrow the us (politicall revolution) and i approve this message!
the mandate is not a side issue. it is a direct assault on our freedom. we should not summit to this type of slavery. i wont summit they can send my ass to prison
Actually its situational application of the law in favor of Corporate Executives such as Glen Renwick, CEO Progressive. In Texas Automobile Insurance is mandated for everyone but there is no “mandate” that Companies such as Progressive have to honor their bogus policies. When I filed a formal complaint against Progressive, the Texas State Board of Insurance Commission refused to review it because I was only a passenger in a car hit by a large truck. What a sweetheart deal for Progressive
here is the health-care plan for you: If your over 65, it is mandatory every 5 years for you and your doctor to discuss how you want to end the pain (end your life). If you have good health-care u will have to get the socialized type instead…WHAT THE HELL! If you don’t have health insurance they still wont let you pay for any surgeries or anything…. the Klan is not to happy right now
the entire damn population is roadkill in the governments eyes….for the government, the only thing we are good for is putting money in there pocket and being there slaves
Progressive thinks people are STUPID because they are utilizing some dumb caricature to sell worthless insurance policies. There is nothing funny about death and an insurance company such as Progressive that REFUSES to honor their policy. Progressive is nothing more than a Ponzi Scheme in which the Corporate Executives get rich and leave injured policy holders bogus insurance policies which are not worth the paper they are written on. See Progressive Insurance Has Treated Me as Roadkill
Is it an option to NOT have any insurance? If people are required to have some type of insurance (whether private or public) then it isn’t a strawman. If insurance is optional (ie. you don’t have to have insurance) then it is a strawman.
Hate socialist gov run health Prove it everyone who hates it doesn’t think it works right now go to parents grandparents & disabled you know & take there socialist gov run medicare & social security & tell them from now on if they need medical care ask you & you will write them a check or if they need rent let you know &you will write them a check also if you know a soldier or a vet take there socialist gov run health card as well & do the same pay there bills i wonder how many will prove it
He know that it is a single payer OPTION, right? If people want to have private health insurance, they can and it is even encouraged.
By arguing against mandates, he is arguing against a strawman in this case.
America bankrupt:
102 trillion for SS & medicare
25 trillion for TARP & bailouts
53 trillion plundered from other trusts
Every single American man, woman & child owes over $600K in FED Gov debt
The US dollar will collapse within the next 1 to 2 years
Check out Rockefeller & Senate Bills 773 & 778 attempting to end American access to the Internet
Americans lost all but no. 3 of their Bill of Rights; Geithner has been wrong about everything for 15 straight years!
1 in 10 on US food stamps
Good point but then capitalism and in fact consumerism would cease to function. Neither could run (at least as we know) without the sluggish bureaucratic practices you outlined. Lets get rid of money in general and turn to a more resource based economy. Dare i even say a utilitarian state.
Freedom is being able to voluntarily help the less fortunate directly, instead of having the overwhelming majority of your taxes given to politically connected banks, bureaucrats, political campaign contributors, interest on national debt, Ponzi schemes, the war on terrorism, the war on drugs, armies of rude incompetent government employees, ridiculously expensive modern sculpture monstrosities in public parks – you get the picture.
As you know that’s why companies provide insurance. I have a high deductible insurance plan. It’s just over 100 dollars per month. Most people spend 100 dollars per week on food.
I had a surgery last year. Like any patient the hospital allowed me to pay the bill over time with no interest. It’s much better to pay off a high deductible than to lose your leg. If your life & your body is your most precious possession, then why are people not willing to pay any price to extend their life?
Dude, we live in a world where the poor are dying and sometimes rot in the streets, luckily not in front of our door though, but it still happens
Wealthy pleople only will give a damn if they live close enough to the troubled places, feel conected to the people or hope to gain some PR for their help.
The “mandate” is a side issue. The idea behind health reform is to make sure that people are PROVIDED with health care. A “mandate” is just one of many ways to provide universal health care, but then people like this jackass would be even less likely to vote for it. That’s why he’s being intellectually dishonest when he acts like the mandate is what he opposes most of all.
Well, if you affiliate yourself with a guy from the Cato institute, what other conclusion should I come to?
Thanks for the reply.
Talking about euthanazia, here in Switzerland (unlike most other European countries) most people are insured by private companies and I don’t know a single European country (besides the Netherlands maybe), who has looser regulations on euthanazia then Switzerland, heck terminally ill people from England and Germany (coutries with a single payer system) especially come here to get euthanized, we even have a word for it “Sterbetourismus”.
two weeks worth of groceries does not cost thousands of dollars, where as an ER visit can easily cost this much and more.
MagellansUnderwear, you might have heard this before, but isn’t food essential to survival. And doesn’t the market (as a collection of businesses) provide that for you just fine?
And please don’t assume I’m a blood thirsty war mongering psycho. People like me who are against governments initiating force against others are against governments initiating any kind of force, including jet fighters and tanks.
DeletedDelusion, just because I’m opposed to the use of violent force, does not mean I’m apposed to the treatment of poor people. No mentally healthy human being wants to live in a world where the poor are dying & rotting on the street. The people will not allow your nightmare scenario to come true. First of all, the people who are currently taking advantage of the system will not allow their lives to become that desperate. Those who truly need the support of others will receive it voluntarily
You neglected to mention possibly the largest contributor. Malpractice insurance. Back to Insurance.
That and we’re looking at health care the wrong way. We are approaching it as a business, and that is why the system is so broken. It is broken too
We are looking at something essential to survival in the same way we are looking at running a 7-11
Limited liability is not necessary for a free market. In fact, according to the Austrian School of Economics (and others) limited liability is not compatible with free market principles. Corporate personhood is an invention of government, not the free market.
Murders are a tiny minority of crimes and would be drastically reduced without the government-created and foolish drug war. Most other crimes are simple assault or property crimes.
But I’m a minarchist. I’ll keep the police.