Democrats in Washington offered the loudest arguments in favor of the individual mandate from their Republican colleagues. Specifically, their stance on a mandate stemmed from the opposition's previous support for this proposal following their Congressional resurgence in 1994. This argument is specious, and especially unjust, considering the fact that any policy is justified just because both political parties had endorsed it.
First of all, Republicans and Democrats agreed at different times on the individual mandate. Second, eternal verities do not change because of common reassessment. Two plus two still equals four, even if Democrats and Republicans in Washington suddenly agree that two plus two should equal five. Third, economic realities do not shift just because two sides agree. The insurance market in itself drives up health care costs, since a third party pays the bills instead of keeping the transaction between patient and doctor. Forcing people to purchase something in order to prepare for a need remains unconstitutional, if not tyrannical.
Besides, just because a core of Republicans from years past endorsed a nation-wide individual health insurance mandate neither indicates nor indicts the GOP as party sponsors for a such an extravagant expansion of state power. What's the story behind Republican support for an individual mandate, anyway?
Former House Speaker and Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich proposed the idea in response to the Democratic party's frightful insight: a single-payer system, run by the government. His proposal was a far cry from the folly nicknamed HillaryCare. President Clinton's first lady proposed a system which would not only force Americans to purchase insurance, but the government would be the primary insurer and health-care provider. Hilary Clinton helped instigate the first major shellacking of the Democratic party, promoting a destructive division of conservative and liberal Democrats in Congress, exacerbated by forty years of corruption by House leadership.
For the record, Gingrich repudiated his support for an individual mandate, admitting that it was a mistake during his run for President. The 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney avoided mentioning such a horrific scheme for the country, despite having shepherded a state-wide equivalent in Massachusetts during his tenure as governor.
Today, the ObamaCare individual mandate, combined with its arcane provisions to spread the risk and force employers to provide insurance, has forced millions of Americans off their current health care plans, and has required them to purchase more expensive plans, or pay higher premiums per month. Poorer Americans are discovering that the subsidies in healthcare.gov (when the website is working) will still price them out. The alarm surrounding ObamaCare signals not only the failure of big government expanding into further reaches of the United States economy, but also the concerns about where ObamaCare is leading: universal healthcare, or a single-payer system.
Canada, Scandinavian countries, Great Britain have inadvertently, exploded the mythic oxymoron of "universal healthcare"
Canada, the Scandinavian countries, and even Great Britain have inadvertently, although consistently, exploded the mythic oxymoron of "universal healthcare", which is neither "universal", owing to the forced rationing which ensues when health care becomes "free"; nor "health care" due to the long lines, and longer stretches of pain and suffering which patients must endure. In some reported cases, pregnant mothers have given birth in hallways surrounding the maternity wards, as the newborns simply will not wait an extra month before a harassed and overburdened obstetrician becomes available. Another media report followed the trying plight of a British pensioner who was refused a last-minute, innovative cancer treatment since the cost was too great, and the government simply did not see the value in spending the dollars on the man. Such rationing is not just unthinkable, but immoral, yet in a single-payer system, such calculations are inevitable. Bureaucrats are costing people their lives, and driving up health care costs.
In the United States, we are witnessing the implosion of the individual mandate, with left-leaning critics demanding the single-payer system, and one of the arguments driving their ongoing support for Obamacare, and in the future a single-payer system, rests on the prior Republican support for an individual mandate.
The emergence of that hollow argument regarding the Republican origin of the individual mandate is merely a last-ditch attempt by liberal media spin-doctors to legitimize a government expansion at the expense of the Constitution, interstate commerce, and the freedom and integrity of the several states and her citizens. The Republican arty as a whole has never endorsed an individual mandate, nor should they. The Democratic Party has positioned itself in every debate to depict government as the road to prosperity and security, all the while watching over the implosion of the U.S. postal service, the unending waste and want of entitlement programs, and an accelerating national debt which undermines consumer confidence, foreign investment, and fiscal solvency.
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a teacher-turned-writer on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A life-long Southern California resident, Arthur currently lives in Torrance.
