I don’t support an individual mandate, but they need to couple that stand with a Federal law that allows healthcare providers to refuse to treat someone if they don’t have the means to pay. Telling hospitals you have to treat anyone and pass the costs on to the rest of us is nuts.
I don't think that's ever going to happen. And I suspect that Newt thinks the same, which is why he came up with the "insurance, or post a bond" idea. Which is not a bad idea IMO.
You bring up a concern but I’d like to expand on your assertion.
The concept of forcing hospitals to service everyone who comes in their door has been abused and the costs of these services is, as you state, passed on to those of us who pay, either as individuals or via our health insurance.
But we CANNOT have emergencies turned away at the hospital door, we simply can’t. First, we are a decent society. We don’t just shutter doors on those bleeding to death for their lack of ability to pay. Second, I can see the sound and sight bytes now...”Because of the Republican elimination of the requirement for hospitals to treat emergencies, little Johnny died from a severe asthma attack which left him unable to breathe.”
HOWEVER, it’s like anything else with liberals...give ‘em an inch, they take a mile. So you get emergency rooms filled with illegal immigrant families all waiting to get family practitioner care in the hospital emergency room.
THAT’s what happens when there are no limits.
It’s a problem but there’s no elected Repub who’ll ever take it on.
Good post.
It's worth noting that a health insurance mandate was a position once held by some conservatives to compensate for hospitals being required to treat patients who don't have insurance. It wasn't a means to fund government run health care like Obamacare.
Santorum has been disingenuous at best claiming that the Individual Mandate to purchase health insurance is in and of itself the core of Obamacare. The core of Obamacare is the forced take over of health care.
For the record, I'm against mandated health insurance and mandated health treatment. They are both unconstitutional.
Can anybody identify one candidate who is against unconstitutionally mandated health treatment?
I can't.