Mandatory Healthcare

Of all the new ideas on how to reform healthcare, the one that has been troubling people a lot is mandatory healthcare coverage. This is the notion that if an individual does not have healthcare, then they may have to pay a fine and or a tax. Polling the nations published a poll that was conducted by ABC news asking whether or not those polled would support or oppose a law requiring the all Americans have health insurance, either getting it from work or buying it on their own. Of those polled, 51% supported this bill, 47% opposed the bill and 2% of those polled had no opinion. However, another poll that was posted on the Polling the nations database was conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation. This poll asked whether or not those polled had employers who offered health insurance. Of those polled, 34% said yes, 60% said no and 6% did not know.

The second poll may show why the first poll was so close in numbers in regards to those who agreed and those who disagreed with making it mandatory that those without healthcare pay a fine/tax. Those who may have agreed with that argument, may work at a job that provides its employees with healthcare coverage and those that said no, might have said no not just because they did not have jobs, but possibly because they had already established themselves in their job and it still did not offer healthcare.

The notion of wanting everyone to have healthcare is logical. However, some do not want the government to pay for it. Also, some employers do not want to cover all of their employees because of costs so thats why they want those without healthcare to front the costs themselves. Yet is it right for the legislators to mandate something that forces an individual to attain healthcare coverage even if they feel as if they do not want it. And is it right for the individual to have to pay an addittional fine on top of other expenses for not having healthcare? It can arguably be said that if passed, the government will be segregating a portion of the population and treat them unfairly by making them pay an additional fine for something that the they do not want to purchase. Regardless, this is what makes the healthcare topic so controversial. All of its details are hard to equally implement.