Individual Health Insurance Mandates Are Mandates, Not Taxes

November 09, 2023

by Garrett M. Gess Mises.org

Imagine that you are a healthy 30-year-old young man who has a respectable job, makes a good living, but decides, you know what? I am not going to spend $200 or $300 a month for health insurance because I am healthy, I do not need it. But something terrible happens, suddenly you fall into a coma and need it.

Who is going to pay for your coverage? In a society where you accept welfarism and socialism to be the answer, you would expect the government to take care of you. Well, that is exactly how the federal health care system works in that those choices are made for you in the first place through the individual mandate.

Adjusted for inflation, total national health expenditures have risen from $409.6 billion to $4.2551 trillion over the 51-year span of 1970 to 2021. That is almost a 1000% increase. No government health care plan or initiative has solved this problem. For 50 years, these healthcare costs have outpaced inflation every single year.