For the brazillionth time: Car and health insurance are NOT analogous!

[Hello_Kitty]

1. You are not required to own a car or drive. The insurance you are required by law to purchase as a driver is liability. It is for harm and damage you do to others. You may have to purchase full coverage as part of the terms of your car loan but that is a private contract and has nothing to do with the state law requiring basic liability coverage.

2. Car insurance is, by definition, catastrophic. It covers only in cases of damage done to the car or persons in it. You cannot use your car insurance for routine maintenance, major engine repairs, wear and tear, or manufacturing defects. The insurance is underwritten based on demographic factors and the statistical unlikelihood of a major claim for most drivers. It is why I, a 42 year old woman, can insure myself for a large amount of money very cheaply. And as I, and my car, get older the cost of my premiums goes down. Health insurance works almost the opposite of everything I just said.

Basically the only similarities that car and health insurance share is that they're both called "insurance". It's a bad analogy.

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. It's more like the mortgage interest deduction....

Let’s play Jeopardy.

A. A purchase that Congress finds worth encouraging, so it passes a law that gains its purchaser a tax advantage, a tax advantage withheld from those who do not make such a purchase….

Q. What is a thirty-year fixed mortgage from Wells Fargo?
Q. What is an ACA-compliant health insurance policy from Aetna, or Anthem/Wellpoint?

[Gman]

2. Whooooosh!!! You can hear the wind whistle through between the ears on this one

in one ear and out the other.

Yes, it's a completely inaccurate analogy.

[derby378]

3. I'm hanging out with the cool kids

:hi:

[ZombieHorde]

4. An excellent argument. Recommended. nt

[quinnox]

5. exactly, but they keep bringing this dead horse up

its as if they are either logic deficient or just don't want to hear it and plug their ears.

[Canuckistanian]

6. Best explanation I've heard

A car is an expendable thing and replaceable.

Your body is single-use only.

A VERY different kettle of fish.

[BzaDem]

7. So? Cars and books aren't analogous. That doesn't mean one is legal but the other isn't. n/t

[BzaDem]

8. The ironic thing is that if states wanted to, they could force you to buy car insurance EVEN if you

didn't own a car. They could even force you to buy 5 apples a day. States have plenary power to enact laws, and there is no constitutional right not to be forced to buy a product from a private party.

[Davis_X_Machina]

9. You *could* stretch the Takings Clause....

...into strange and novel shapes in response, but that's something the right has had more of an interest in, in recent years, as a counter to regulation of economic activity generally, and environmental and land-use regulation.

There aren't many swords that don't have two edges, are there?

[Hello_Kitty]

11. They'd make you buy insurance on something you don't own? eom

[Davis_X_Machina]

12. "It's not fair" may be true..

...but it's not an argument, at least in con law. You've got to identify which constitutional right is violated by the legislation you think is defective. As the prior poster indicates, in the case of the state, there are very few limits on their sphere of action, and have pretty much plenary power to legislate within those limits.

[Exilednight]

10. Let's not forget that you aren't really required to buy car insurance. States can make you

set up a state escrow account in lieu of insurance. The other option is to buy a bond that states that you have enough money to pay for any and all damages that you may be liable for in case of accident.

[Still a Democrat]

13. A lot of conservatives make this argument

But if you're going to remove pre-existing conditions, you have to require people buy insurance or pay a penalty. Otherwise, they simply buy insurance when they get sick. If you subject them to a waiting period, they roll up big debts/expenses, which is part of what HCR is intended to avoid.

[xchrom]

14. recommend - you'd think it would be obvious. nt

[kentuck]

15. Homeless people are required to have health insurance?

How do they afford it? They don't have a driver's license either.

[snooper2]

16. You ain't got no pancake mix

[cbdo2007]

17. Actually it's the perfect analogy here at DU.

Duers have a very BAD grasp on all things economic and the details of any kind of law/definition/fact. The discussions here and the decisions made from discussions here are 99% based on feelings and 1% based on facts, therefore while you are correct that car insurance and auto insurance are a bad analogy, this argument itself is actually a very GOOD analogy of what DU has become and what drives the discussions and the viewpoints spewed - our hearts not our minds.

[hunter]

18. They both make the insurance corps lots of money.

And cars and the U.S. healthcare system kill and maim people in a similar fashion.

There are immense profits to be made in human misery! Just ask the war industry...