There is a point about liberty and this health insurance mandate that I haven’t seen addressed yet, however, in that there are a couple perspectives through which to view a health insurance mandate. One is economics, which I think has been well-addressed on many blogs and occasionally in print; the other is philosophy, which I don’t think has been well-addressed.

I’m a citizen of Massachusetts, and I’m poor enough to have seen, within my community of friends and relations, its ill effects. Young adults, by virtue of the mandate, are being forced to make huge decisions about what they choose to do in life before they really have the ability to do so; because of health insurance, my stepdaughter rushed into a community college program that doesn’t suit her, even though she has licensure and job experience elsewhere (those jobs weren’t full-time, you see, and didn’t offer benefits).

That’s a symptom of philosophical problem, which is this: we, as citizens, are now born with a price on our head and jail time to serve if we don’t pay it. The health insurance mandate is starkly different from other mandated taxes, in that those other mandated taxes (income tax, property tax, auto insurance in some states) taxed a behavior and particular state of being (bringing in income, owning a home, driving a car). One could still ostensibly live nearly tax-free, if he or she decided to, say, build a house in the wilderness and become self-sufficient off the land. Or one could avoid directly paying property taxes by getting an apartment, or avoid auto insurance by getting a bike and living close to their place of employment.

But with mandatory health insurance, you’re born with a price on your head (namely, the fine for not buying a policy). The levying of the price is devoid of all behavioral characteristics or particular states of being, and instead is levied by virtue of one drawing breath. You can never escape or avoid the price; and, if you happen to (by choice or otherwise) not be generating an income (say, by becoming the all-American wilderness man), then you will be put in jail simply for existing without paying into the state.

The American ideal of self-sufficiency will not only be eroded by the passage of this mandate, it will be completely annihilated, in a philosophical sense.

For more on this, see this piece from the 9/30/2009 Christian Science Monitor:

“Heath care in Massachusetts: A Warning For America”
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0930/p09s01-coop.html