Characterizing the insurance mandate

author — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:19:08 +0000

There has been a lot of public debate lately about having an insurance mandate as part of the health care reform proposal, and the characterization of it has been met with varying opinions. The main disparity is centered on whether this should be considered a tax increase hence breaking the campaign promise of not raising taxes on people making less than $250k. Supporters of the mandate are feverishly defending it as simply providing for one’s own health care or being assessed a penalty upon failure to obtain such coverage. Critics are countering with the fact that the Government is mandating this on its citizens thus it is effectively a tax. While the politicians, pundits, and the media are debating how to label this forced participation, it should not be difficult for us citizens to characterize the end result. Regardless of what official label is ascribed to it as the political games continue, the one certainty is it will extract money out of the pockets of citizens. This will surely be the case if you are not currently buying insurance or if you are directed to upgrade your current policy because it is deemed insufficient or unacceptable by our Government. From a logical point of view, it really does not matter if you call it a tax, penalty, fine, assessment, fee, or any other designation because the Government taking or directing money away from someone involuntarily will still have the same tangible impact. If people prefer to call it a penalty versus a tax or a fee versus a fine then they are free to do so because the result is identical. The debate is disingenuous because it is nothing more than political posturing for the sole purpose of shaping the public’s opinion on classifying the sequestering of people from their money, but we as a public should understand this. It seems foolish to care about the political debate describing the mandate when the outcome of its implementation is already known, we should remain observant of substance over form. This game is only important to politicians so they can refute any future accusations of busted campaign promises once confronted by opponents, but it should remain pointless to us.

Dose of Clarity » insurance mandate

Characterizing the insurance mandate