http://pubcrawler.blogspot.com/2007/11/two-seemingly-unrelated-stories.html

Alas, if they’d only leave me alone.

Mandatory car insurance is liability insurance. Home owner insurance is disaster insurance.

Medical insurance isn’t really insurance. It’s like a health care club membership fee. If you want access to more coverage, you pay more for it. Mandating coverage is artificially inflating demand up to a certain level of coverage. I can’t see how this helps America spend less on health care.

Furthermore, Edwards has said that you have to go get preventative care and annual checkups. For example, you can’t avoid seeing a doctor for 20 years. You have to get regular mammograms if you are a woman. I’m guessing children will have to be vaccinated. All preventative care is apparently mandatory. “You don’t have a choice.” Some central authority will probably be tasked with deciding the merit and cost effectiveness of all types of preventative care. Count on that that central authority to make some pretty bad decisions somewhere down the line.

With Edwards our health care system is going to be screwed.

Other than the fact you can sell off your cars if the insurance becomes onerous, not much. However, having lived in states where the government both mandated and regulated auto insurance, I fear for my health/pocketbook from this boondogle.

Make no mistake this system would inevitably lead to a combinations of high costs, lousy care and a stagnation of the medical industry. If John Edwards was truly serious about making high quality health care accessible to all, he would abolish the FDA and publicly shame the AMA for using state licensing boards to create an unconscionable shortage of doctors, and reform/eliminate medicare.

Either John Edwards has a really flawed economic model in his head, or he is an evil man who wants to profit from making people’s lives more miserable. Personally I don’t care which. I want that guy’s laws kept away from my, my wife’s and my children’s bodies.

Secondly, how does this argument justify mandatory health insurance?

Mandatory preventive care means that the plan will be required to offer it, not that the patient will be required to have it. Preventive care, dental care, vision care, long-term care – all must be in the plan as available care.

Mandatory participation means that all people will be required to have coverage. Where is that any different than mandatory auto insurance?

http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=2092

He never has explain what will happen to those who do not agree to the mandatory care. Some speculated that he would just make people ineligible for his program if they didn’t comply, but it doesn’t look like being outside of his program will be an option.

He also wants to make it “mandatory” for Congress to pass his bill as he tries to place pressure on Congress to vote his way with threats, forgetting the proper relationship between the Executive Branch and Congress:

http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=2441