The critiques of Jeff Jared’s opinion of the Obama health care program are off the mark. Comparing mandatory health care to auto insurance is like comparing pineapples to hand grenades. Auto insurance is only mandatory if you choose to drive a car because of the harm you can cause to other people. Auto insurance rates will vary depending upon the risk you pose (driving record, age, type of car, where you live, etc.).

The health care law will not assess a premium based on risk factors. In fact, it will subsidize some of the most risky individuals. Individuals can smoke, become obese, and engage in other risky behaviors, with the expectation that the full force of the U.S. health care system will be available to them at no additional cost. This can be likened to charging a flat rate car insurance and being allowed to drive irresponsibly, get speeding tickets, and have accidents, with no effect on your insurance premium.

The homeowner’s insurance comparison is no better. With home insurance, one must have insurance in before making a claim. Pre-existing conditions are covered with ObamaCare, so one can wait until injured or sick and then purchase health insurance coverage.

The comparison of ObamaCare to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security is actually fairly accurate. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security have created trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities that will have to be paid by future generations. These programs have destroyed private health plans for the elderly and allowed a false sense of retirement security as well as reducing the responsibility of the individual to provide for their own retirement. ObamaCare will continue the tradition of being an unsustainable entitlement.

America can do better. We can allow the power of the market system to provide healthcare services that match the individual’s priority for health care by allowing insurance companies to compete nationally, across state borders. We can allow individuals to deduct their health premiums from their taxable income, the same way that businesses deduct their costs. We can mandate that everyone carry a minimum emergency room insurance to cover accident care. Overall, I don’t believe that the crux of the problem is a transfer of wealth from rich to poor, from the healthy to the unhealthy. ObamaCare transfers responsibility for health care care to all current and future American tax payers rather than holding individuals responsible for their insurance coverage. We are trading individual choice and responsibility for ObamaCare. Is this the new American Democracy?

Scott Rush, Kirkland