The Affordable Health Care Act has been declared constitutional. Deadbeats demanding freedom from taking responsibility to pay the cost of their own health care have lost the argument. Rather than be forced by the government to pay insurance premiums, they want the freedom to pay nothing, even when an ambulance shows up at their door to convey them to the hospital for a weeklong $50,000 stay. Their exercise of freedom to not cover themselves for such emergencies forces those of us who have insurance to pay their hospital costs for them.
Real “freedom” would dictate that these deadbeats tough it out. Just as they have the freedom to refuse to buy health insurance they can afford, so are they free not to be treated if they can’t pay for it. Instead, they choose to be treated on our tab and to carry signs saying “I want my freedom!”
Right-wing ideologues are now calling the Affordable Health Care Act a tax on the middle class. It isn’t. The tax will fall on the deadbeats who can afford health insurance but don’t buy it, choosing instead to stick the rest of us with an extra $1,000 in premiums to pay for their hospital trips. That’s a worthwhile tax.
Joel Littauer
Vancouver
