Mandatory health insurance?

[pauamma]

so it looks (from what I saw) that the final (signed into law) health bill makes health insurance mandatory. I'm curious: setting aside the "why would anyone in their right mind *not* want health insurance" justification or justification attempt, what are the reasons invoked to make it mandatory? If someone wanted to opt out for some reason (if only because it's mandatory, benefits notwithstanding), what would be their options, and would you consider that wish reasonable?

ETA: should probably get "health insurance" and or "it's for your own good" topic tags, but I can't create new tags.

Comments

[cheyinka]

The thing with schools, I think, is the best analogy for why it might be worth funding other people's health care:

even people who homeschool their kids, or send them to private school, as well as people who don't have kids and don't even interact with anybody under the age of 20, fund the public schools - because it's in everyone's best interest that society be populated by people who are at least minimally-literate, minimally-numerate, able to benefit from advanced education should they want a job requiring it...

and similarly it's in everyone's best interest that society be populated by healthy people. Some people never get sick, and other people treat all their own ailments, but some people also teach themselves to read before they ever get to school.

(This is something that just occurred to me when reading this comment, so it may not be the best argument - I'm certainly not sold on this being the best reason or whatever.)