Should we require a healthy twenty-five-year-old to buy health insurance or pay a penalty if he/she doesn’t?

Let’s consider a young man we’ll call George. George is healthy, exercises regularly, eats right, and doesn’t abuse alcohol or drugs. He’s never been sick with anything but an occasional cold or passing stomach virus.

George is driving back to his apartment one evening from work. A drunk driver going in the opposite direction suddenly crosses the median and crashes head on into George’s car. The drunk driver, a repeat offender, has no driver’s license and no insurance.

George has serious injuries. He is rushed to the hospital where doctors save his life, and after several days, set him on the road to recovery. However, the immediate hospitalization in intensive care costs thousands of dollars. Rehabilitation will cost additional thousands of dollars.

George doesn’t have health insurance to help pay the costs, and, as a young man just starting out, has few savings.

Who pays for the costs associated with the accident? I do, along with other taxpayers.

We pay because a young man refused to acknowledge that he is as subject to mortality as anyone else. More importantly, we pay because too many of us see insurance as an individual issue, not as part of pooling resources for the community.

I have a right to insist that all buy health insurance because I pay when the uninsured need medical help beyond their means to pay.