From: stephen@sprunk.org

On 24-Apr-15 08:25, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> Charles Ellson  wrote:
>> "Adam H. Kerman"  wrote:
>>> Charles Ellson  wrote:
>>>> Is compulsory motor insurance "socialism" ?
>>>
>>> Your analogy sucks. There's no comparison between a requirement
>>> to have liability insurance with single-payer health insurance.
>>> For one thing, liability is to other people and perhaps that is
>>> society's business.
>>
>> If you are ill beyond self-help you become a medical liability upon
>> others
>
> ...
> An injured or ill person can receive life-saving care (but not full
> treatment) in a hospital emergency room without ability to pay, but
> that's a condition of federal law for receiving payments through
> socialized medicine or having received past grants for new facilities
> or having a nonprofit tax status.

... which pretty much every hospital has received at some point, so in
practice it is a liability upon society.

> Otherwise just showing up at an emergency room shouldn't impose a
> duty of care upon the hospital.

IMHO, there is a moral obligation, even if not a legal one.

> In a free society, why shouldn't that be a choice an adult can make
> for himself, as the only person he would harm is himself?

Sometimes the adult can't afford the care they need, e.g. because they
are banned from buying insurance due to their immigration status, which
means there is no real choice available to them.

Maybe you'll choose to blame the adults for such, which is debatable,
but should such adults' children die from treatable injuries or diseases
due to their parents' choices (or lack thereof)?

S

--
Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

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