[Dead Corpse]

It's not perfect, but to those of you who say that it should be up to the individual as to whether or not they want health insurance, my question is: if someone shows up to an emergency room now, the ER has to admit them (if they are sick, injured, whatever). It seems only fair that with this law in place, that we require people to have insurance. Because there is no way that the ER can reject someone if they cannot pay for it.

Excusing socialism because of the costs of socialism doesn't work well. Google up "circular logic".

[Koblenz]

Excusing socialism because of the costs of socialism doesn't work well. Google up "circular logic".

So are you saying that emergency rooms should require proof of payment before they operate on someone? What if the person is incapacitated but has insurance but cannot prove it? What if he's been stabbed and mugged? Should the ER refuse him because might not have insurance and might not be able to pay his bill.

I would think that emergency room patients fall under the term "market failure" item: the purchaser is often incapacitated, and some sort of safeguard needs to exist to protect the ER against people who cannot pay. You simply cannot have a market in these conditions.