From the LA Times:
"It's a bonanza," said Robert Laszewski, a health insurance executive for 20 years who now tracks reform legislation as president of the consulting firm Health Policy and Strategy Associates Inc.
The reference is to a mandate to carry health insurance. I will not be a 'bonanza', and I will not pay for health insurance. I don't now, I haven't for 10 years, and I refuse to in the future. Am I going to be a healthcare criminal?
I have worked in a variety of positions over the last 10 years. I use that timeframe because that is when I entered my current profession, information technology. In all those years, I had health insurance for about 14 months total between 2 stints with employers that offered insurance at a discount.
I have not seen a medical doctor for healthcare reasons (I know several professionally) since I had a physical for college, 1991. I haven't been to a dentist since high school, 1989 or so. I am wearing the same eyeglasses that I purchased from a cafeteria plan back in 1998. I have, therefore, essentially never had healthcare as an adult.
I am young and relatively healthy. I have no medical conditions that require medication (that I know of). I have never needed more than antibiotics for a cold or a splint for a broken finger. I have never needed healthcare.
Or do I? I guess I will never know because if healthcare reform efforts result in nothing but a mandate for me to purchase insurance, I will refuse to. It is a product I will not purchase. If my choice is between bankrupting my family or dying, I will choose a young death. Is that noble or stupid?
Well, I don't know. I'm too young to know any better, because I grew up in the Reagan era. I grew up learning about the greatness of American democracy while being told that government is the problem and only an unrestricted private enterprise can deliver my needs. You see, I have been lied to all my life.
So I will not be a bonanza.
I may, however, be a statistic in the culture war.