It's one thing to have a payment plan and pay down your debts. It's another to skip out on the hospital and leave innocent Taxpayers with the bill. The 13th's restriction on involuntary servitude excludes service due as a punishment for crime, and last I checked, stealing was still a crime.
(Of course, considering that we don't even force inmates into any kind of service any longer sorta kiboshes my whole idea, but I hope you get the point anyway. The British had absolutely the right idea on the punishment of crime. Too bad we don't have the moral fortitude to follow in the footsteps of our ancestors any longer...)
Regards,
~dt~
Dear detsaoT,
Actually, for someone who winds up in the hospital with a debt that he cannot realistically pay back (especially if we charge a minimal amount of interest), we do have a legal facility. It's called bankruptcy.
Thus, in that this is precisely a kind of circumstance for which the bankruptcy law was designed and intended, folks should be able to escape your proposed system through the use of bankruptcy law.
As well, generally, the inability to repay a debt isn't considered theft, although there are exceptions. Everyone who grants credit (I own a business and I grant credit) knows that if you grant credit and someone can't pay you, you can't have them arrested for theft, generally speaking.
sitetest