That is absolutely true, which is why you should take every opportunity to remind your elected representatives that you will vote against them if they mandate broccoli-eating. But you won’t, because you’re a single issue voter (IIRC). Of course, as it happens the issue you tend to vote on likely puts you on the side of the party that won’t require you to eat broccoli anyway.
Win/win! I do love broccoli. The government shouldn’t be able to force me to eat it though.
Interesting choice of example.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt hated broccoli, but the White House cook sometimes mad it, and he felt compelled to eat it.
George H.W. Bush hates broccoli, and mandated a “no-broccoli” menu when they served him at the White House.
Roosevelt was a Democrat. Bush a Republican. This is one of the issues I agree with him on.
Absolutely right. But then again with “You need to take this test or I can’t treat you.” the choice is get treatment or don’t get treatment.
And that only started with the ACA?
Trump: Health care savings plans.** Repeal Obamacare.**
Carson: “health empowerment account system.” whateverthefuckthatis 
:dubious: (a sort of Health care savings account?) Repeal Obamacare.
Cruz: allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines, health savings accounts. Repeal Obamacare.
Rubio: High-risk pools- also his grandfather had polio, but what that has to do with it…??? Repeal Obamacare.
So, no GOP candidate has suggested “something better”.
Everyone already does this, with free to them but overpriced for the taxpayer ER visits for the indigent.
So, when they wheel you into that County ER, you will hop off the gurney and die instead? :dubious:
I agree. But bad policy isn’t against the law, so your recourse against mandatory broccoli is at the ballot box.
I know! It sucks and my position lost. Get ready for mandatory broccoli.
I’m okay with mandatory broccoli. Assuming you mean Obamacare. If you mean actual broccoli I may be persuaded to exercise my Second Amendment remedies.
I would die with a cleaner conscience knowing that I didn’t force someone else to pay for my mistakes through the threat of government violence.
If you accept that the government should provide a safety net for those that can’t afford health insurance, and it was, at the time, impossible to pass a system that would allow for that without a mandate, it sort of is.
If we had done single-payer, or some other system that actually works, I’d agree. But the mandate is necessary for near universal coverage with private insurers. For the insurance companies to stay afloat they need a mandate to offset the price controls and prohibition against insurance dickeries (like pre-existing conditions or lifetime caps). Without a mandate, the other two legs collapse.
Or at least they’re likely to collapse. So, I’d say, as a *practical *matter, an argument for the safety net is an argument for a mandate, because half the population delusionally thinks our previous system was first rate and would revolt at the idea of comporting with the rest of the first world.
Typically, I blame RW media.
Just the cost of picking you up and transporting has already been incurred.
But the premise of the health insurance mandate is that if you are sick, we will provide you with care even if you can’t pay for it, because you’re a human being and not just a car. So if you don’t cover your own losses, others will cover them for you. In that sense, health insurance is also protecting the rest of us from having to pay for your problems.
It’s easy to say it now, but in the moment, I’m guessing you’d want to live.
I really do wish we had a clause in the law that said “if you don’t want to buy insurance, fine, you must agree to forego all treatment you can’t pay for.” If it weren’t for that fact that people like you could still cost me money when your kids go on welfare after you die or whatever, I think it would work out.
Not to mention the plastic tarp burial shroud and the pauper’s grave.
A good reason to get rid of welfare too. Thanks for making that point.
Punish your kids for your mistake?
Or do you want to repeal child labor laws?