Mandating Health Insurance

According to several sources at a large local hospital, a whopping number of their patients have no insurance and are unable to pay their bills. Of course, the hospital can't turn away those in need, so those of us with insurance (or the means to pay our medical bills) are left to make up the difference. Something has to give because this trend is rapidly becoming much worse. Whether the following is feasible for NC is debatable, but it's an interesting concept.

An editorial from the folks at the WSJ:

Suddenly, the nation's health-care crisis doesn't look unsolvable.

Massachusetts, with a bipartisan effort involving Republican Gov. Mitt Romney and the Democratic legislature, has created a template for assuring almost universal health-care coverage. North Carolina, other states and the federal government should be considering the plan as a means for insuring all Americans.

The Massachusetts plan is based on a simple concept: All residents have a responsibility to insure themselves and their families. If a state can require all licensed drivers to have auto insurance, it should require everyone who might need health care to have health insurance, Romney says.

Individualists might find fault with this message, saying, "That's my business." But they're wrong. Universal coverage is everyone's business because an uninsured individual often ends up drawing medical care for free - free only for himself. His costs are shifted onto the rest of us, suckers who are responsible enough to have insurance so we can pay health-care providers for their services.