On Jan. 19, I heard a politician on NPR compare the individual mandate to purchase insurance coverage to being "forced to buy broccoli or join a gym." This "individual mandate" is an important provision of the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act, which all Republicans in the U.S. House voted to repeal this week.
I pondered this. Yes, buying and eating broccoli and joining a gym can help keep you healthy, so in that respect, they are similar. And, being forced to buy broccoli or forced to join a gym is like being forced to buy insurance in the aspect of "being forced."
But there is a very important difference between health insurance, broccoli and joining a gym that makes the politician's comparison ridiculous.
Last year, I went to my doctor because I had been experiencing severe symptoms in my wrists. My doctor referred me to a specialist, who conducted a nerve test, which demonstrated that I had carpal tunnel syndrome. The solution to the problem was surgery. So I had carpal tunnel surgery in 2010.
Long before my carpal tunnel symptoms appeared, and to the present day, I have purchased and continue to purchase health insurance. The purpose of my insurance to pay for the majority of the costs generated by my receiving health care.
Because I have insurance, the insurance company used the money that I and my employer paid in the form of premiums, as well as funds paid in as premiums by others who have insurance with the same company I do, to pay the surgeon, the anesthetist, nurses, to purchase drugs, and pay for other costs that my carpal tunnel surgery generated. The costs of the testing, doctor visits, and surgery went well into several thousand dollars.
If insurance is like broccoli, as the politician I heard, and many other politicians have asserted (do a Google search for the key words "broccoli health care Obamacare" and you'll find thousands of hits), then I should have been able to pay for my carpal tunnel surgery with broccoli. I could have told my doctor, "I don't have insurance to pay you, but I can give you 5 pounds of broccoli." And, if insurance were like broccoli, I could have given 2 pounds of broccoli to each of the nurses, and 4 pounds to the anesthetist, to pay for the services they provided me.
The point is this: being forced to buy insurance is NOTHING like being forced to buy broccoli, because you can use insurance to prevent yourself from experiencing severe financial hardships brought about by having to pay for your own health care expenses with your own money.
You cannot pay for your health care expenses with broccoli. We don't live in a barter society.