Louisiana requires people to have car insurance (if they own a car that is). You can look at this two ways- Bad for private business but good for taxpayer/ insured people who end up paying higher premiums and taxes(medicaid, etc) because of the uninsured. Uninsured still get sick,injured, etc, its just that somebody else has to pay.
I am sure you meant to say "uninsured poor". Before HSAs became available a couple of years ago, I never had health insurance, and no one ever payed any of my medical bills.
Yeah, but you don't have to drive a car for example if you live in a city. And if you don't need a car, you don't need auto-insurance. If someone doesn't want health insurance they should not be forced to purchase it. If they get sick then they need to sell everything to cover the cost or they go without help. If hospitals were not FORCED to treat everyone who comes to their doorstep who can not pay, then this would not be an issue
Why does somebody else have to pay if someone gets sick or injured? Auto insurance is necessary to ensure compensation to the person who is injured or whose property is damaged by the insured person -- that's a reasonable requirement for using the public roads. But if someone is uninsured and gets sick or gets injured, why should we assume that somebody else has to pay?
What about the added expense passed on down to the consumer? They might be getting insurance, but they'll end up paying for it in the products/services they buy.
Seems like a reasonable attempt at a solution. Even the poor will now have some sort of private (if subsidized) insurance, so they can go the family doctor for coughs colds and bumps and bruises instead of tying up emergency rooms for what should be just routine doctors visits... Which of course is the MOST expensive health care choice there is, but the only one that exists for the truly indigent.