Mandatory purchase no worse than taxes

The discussions about the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) have spent much time on the issue of mandatory purchase of insurance. During the last Bush administration the Part D portion of Medicare was enacted making mandatory purchase of insurance a major feature of the law. However, the purchasing of this insurance was described as voluntary, since there were so many options available from the insurance vendors.

Voluntary, my eye! Mendacity about things mandatory, a kind of deception, was being practiced. If you didn’t purchase Part D insurance, you were penalized. I was able to opt out of the system by going to the marvelous socialized medicine program offered by the Veterans Administration for my meds. I’m still within the letter of the mandatory purchase law.

Now a different variety of mendacity is being practiced in arguing against the mandatory aspect of the Affordable Care Act. We hear that mandated insurance purchase is a betrayal of basic rights. Some say it’s a challenge to our liberty. They insist we must be allowed to be free of government concern for our health and that of millions of other Americans.

It’s nothing of the sort. Mandated taxes pay for several public health practices: putting chlorine in our drinking water and sanitary disposal of wastes to name a few. Stop any one of these public health activities and we’d be dropping like flies. So, mandate away. I love life! Allow the Affordable Care Act to do its job of making it possible for millions more to live a fuller life. The only ones allowed to opt out are members of certain religious groups and hermits living in the wilds out of touch with civilization.

Calvin K. Claus

Arlington Heights