baelnic wrote:
It was a bargaining chip for the insurance industry. Why do you think this mandate is going to hurt the private sector? It's going to give them millions of new customers and give them billions in new profits.
I never said it would. It will hurt the new customers though. And it infringes their rights along the way.
It doesn't hurt th4e private sector financially, but it does create yet another entanglement. A market isn't free if the costs and demand for products in that market are artificially manipulated by a government. The more we do that, the less free that market becomes. I would rather that the cost for medical care be based on its relative rarity and value on the market, then based on the result of insurance companies gaming the government's regulations. Where we get corruption in these sorts of things is when the government introduces these sorts of artificial market forces. This is something I've talked about before. In a relatively free market, the players in that market make the most profit by finding ways to bring the best product to market for the lowest price. In a government controlled market, the players in said market make the most profit by figuring out how to manipulate the government regulations to their benefit, which often results in lower quality products at a higher price.
That's why it's bad for everyone in the long run.