Saturday, October 03, 2009

the stupidest argument against health care reform

the objection to paying for someone else.

"paying for someone else" is the whole concept behind insurance. the idea of insurance is that there are certain things (floods, catastrophic medical costs, car crashes) which can be so economically devastating that individuals would be ruined if they had to pay the entire thing out of their own pocket. insurance is a way of pooling risk, everyone pays in, only the unlucky ones draw out. but then everyone can feel more secure knowing they have insurance to fall back on if disaster hits.

in other words, all insurance involves you paying other people's bills (or other people paying your bills). that's what insurance is all about. you can call it "socialism" if you want, that's not an argument, that's just slapping a label on something. but if you happen to believe it's evil to pay for other people, then cancel all your insurance policies.

(this post is a cut and paste job from what i just wrote in the comments, but this particular point has been rattling around in my head for months. thanks to FE for finally getting me to post it, with minor edits)