Free Riders, Healthy People, Mandatory Health Care, and NO Option

I listened to way too much of the Congressional debate over the health care bill on Saturday and Sunday.  I heard a lot of anger against mandatory health insurance.  And C-Span had callers giving their perspectives too.  Several young men called to say they didn't want to be forced to buy health insurance.  They took care of themselves and didn't need health insurance.  None of the commentators asked these callers if something should happen to them - say, they get severely injured in a car wreck - whether they would forgo medical treatment.  I suspect they would end up in the emergency room just like insured folks.

In economics, such people are called free riders because they enjoy the benefits of group action without paying for it.





So to help these young men and those who think like them, I propose they be given an option.  Americans  should be able to choose whether they buy insurance or not.  If they don't buy insurance, they will get a free tattoo "NO" on their  foreheads so that health care providers know that they do not want health care.  They will be provided a free, no-frills burial.    



While the Democrats have never considered such an option, many in our present system have received the equivalent.  They were denied medical treatment because they could not get insurance. 


[original photo from Sophistic, Miltonian, Serbonian blog, though most likely it comes from somewhere else.]