According to the linked story below, states such as Minnesota and Arizona are trying to amend their constitution to bar federal health insurance requirements. Certainly this is in response to the proposal to require all citizens to carry health insurance. The rationale behind the amendments is that citizens should be free to decide for themselves if they choose to carry health insurance; it shouldn’t be a government decision.
Using that logic, shouldn’t it be extended to automobile insurance? Why should the government be able tell us we have to carry car insurance but not health insurance?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/us/29states.html?hp
Tags: allowing, Auto, Health, Insurance, Making, mandatory, some, States, unconstitutional
Car insurance is not mandatory. Don’t own a car, don’t have insurance. Try that with health care.
Auto insurance isn’t mandatory for ALL citizens, Only the ones that drive. and govnernment has no business in our business.
That’s mostly a political protest – no real teeth. Car Insurance is not a valid parallel – one could always take the bus. But everyone has a body and everyone (eventually) get sick.
Car insurance doesn’t cost $3000 to insure your car (unless you are high risk) . and …….. car insurance doesn’t cover ‘basic repairs and maintenance’. And, you don’t need a car. Also, Ohio has mandatory coverage. Yet, there are many uninsured motorists on the road. We pay extra on our policy to cover uninsured.
The car insurance that is mandatory is to protect other drivers. If I hit someone else without insurance they are screwed but if I get sick without insurance it is only me that suffers the financial burden.
In states where auto insurance is mandatory, people are only required to have liability insurance to cover damages to another person’s automobile if they hit them. They are not required to have any coverage on their own vehicle. That is an entirely personal decision that people are free to make. They can protect their asset, or not protect it. People are also not required to own or drive vehicles, so they do have a choice to not have liability coverage on an auto if they don’t own one. Mandatory auto insurance laws are also written and enforced at state level, as they should be. The health care bills are federal level requirements, which should never happen. There’s a HUGE difference between state level auto insurance and federal level health insurance mandates.
Auto insurance protects other people. Health insurance protects you. Being able to pay for damage you may cause to others is something you have to do to drive. You should have to be able to protect others from having to pay your medical bills because you didn’t have insurance but apparently Arizona and Minnesota don’t think that.
The only mandatory auto insurance that is required is for damage you do to OTHER PEOPLE’S PROPERTY with your car. States don’t care if you insure your own car.
Now, if states started requiring people to insure their own stuff, then you might have an argument. Until then, apples and oranges.