Mandatory Health Insurance, Is It Even Possible?

I can across an interesting article, that prompted me to write about mandatory health insurance, but nobody seems to be asking the most important question. Can they do it?

Basically the article says that mandatory health insurance will require you to have health insurance or you face a penalty. Of course, I already knew that. Massachusetts is the first state that already has mandatory health insurance. New Jersey and California are two other states that have mandatory health insurance on their mind.

I guess the real question I have to ask, is it possible nationally? Can any candidate make it mandatory across the United States, or will they have to encourage each state to adopt the policy. Currently, in two states, car insurance isn't even mandatory.

Maybe I'm missing something, but if they can't even make car insurance mandatory across the board, now you hear talk about making health insurance mandatory across all 50 states, even though only 1 state has adopted such a policy?

I'm not going to argue and say mandatory health insurance is correct or not. I'm just wondering how any candidate plans to put a mandatory health insurance plan into action, or if it's even possible. For any insurance changes, each state has gotten to decide. I don't see that changing in 2008.

Mandatory health insurance heats up in New Jersey

I recently posted about the plan for California mandatory health insurance. I may have been wrong about California being the second state, because New Jersey may be the second state first. The Associated Press reported about the plans for mandatory health insurance in New Jersey. The senator in New Jersey said he soon will announce plans to require NJ residents in to have health insurance. He said the fine details about affordability are being worked on. The state senator said he will announce plans after the new year.

Health insurance in New Jersey is the most expensive in the US, and many people in NJ simply can't afford it. So will the senator fix the problem by requiring people to fork over the money anyway, or will he some how be able to make health insurance affordable in New Jersey. I'm guessing we won't know more until the end of the year.

California next state for Mandatory Health Insurance?

Recently Massachusetts created a bill that required all people to have health insurance in their state. Could California be next? It looks like Schwarzenegger just outlined his plan. I'm quite curious how mandatory health insurance has affected people in Mass. Did everyone actually get health insurance? How do people get in trouble for not having health insurance? If you get pulled over, do they arrest you if you can't prove you have health insurance & car insurance? What kind of fines must you pay if you don't have a health plan? I would be interested to hear from people in Mass, and what people think of this in California. Quite frankly, I agree with a writer at LA times, when he said Making health insurance mandatory, isn't reform.

I believe it's important to have health insurance, but if you don't have it, it's not really affecting others, so you don't really hurt other people. Are they really looking after our best interests? Maybe they should ban unhealthy foods instead? Rather than requiring people to have health insurance, maybe they should try to make it more affordable so people can have a choice to buy it or not. Most people would like to have a health plan, so making it more affordable to those that can not afford it, would be a better plan, I think. So who would like to have health insurance mandatory in California? According to a post at a california health insurance blog, Kaiser Permanente HMO likes the proposal, and what health insurance company wouldn't enjoy health insurance being mandatory?