The health care question

Some facts about the health care bill:

First, you don't have to buy health insurance. If you choose not to, you'll be treated differently at tax time. Just as single people and married couples are treated differently. Just as homeowners and renters are treated differently. Just as business owners and wage earners are treated differently. And on and on. No one will make you buy health insurance.

You say we can't afford it? The Congressional Budget Office, which both Republicans and Democrats acknowledge as non-partisan, says the bill will reduce the deficit over ten years. The CBO has a large group of accountants who have pored over the legislation with computer spreadsheets and have come to this conclusion: we're better off with it than without it. You may not believe them, and you're entitled to your opinion. Just realize that they have hundreds of pages of numbers and you have an opinion.

I'm for it. It's wrong to add a "surcharge" to every medical bill I pay in order to pay the bills of the uninsured. Why should someone else's health care expense be added to my bill? Shouldn't people be responsible for paying their own bills?

The law requires motorcycle riders to wear a helmet: society isn't protecting the motorcyclist from himself; society is protecting itself from the expense of caring for people for weeks in a hospital, months of rehabilitation, or possibly a lifetime of institutional care. Society has a right to insist people take action to mitigate the consequences of risky behavior if those consequences might otherwise fall back on society.

An advantage of having government pay for health insurance for the poor is this: If our society chooses to allow people to not have insurance, their unpaid bills should be borne by our entire society and not just by people who get sick.

Just my humble opinion. But I'm right.