A crucial question in the U.S. health care debate is this:
What happens when people without insurance show up at hospitals needing care?
By law, everyone must be treated regardless of ability to pay.
But medical care isn't free, and you can bet hospitals and doctors pass those
costs on to the rest of us.
We who have insurance pay not only for our own medical care but also for those
who choose to skip the monthly expense.
The growing ranks of free riders is one reason why insurance premiums are
climbing.
There are two ways to change this reality:
Either force everyone to buy insurance, or, when the uninsured need care, say
``Let them die''.
Many conservatives are decrying a possible insurance mandate as government
intrusion into a personal decision whether to buy insurance.
But I don't hear many conservatives saying ``Let them die'', so I assume they
want the insured to continue paying for the uninsured.
Is the freedom to be a freeloader really a right worth defending?
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