If you are over five years old and live in America you have heard of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare).  Even if you have absolutely no idea what it is, you most certainly have an opinion about it.  Republicans have convinced you it is the worst thing that has happened in the history of the world, or Democrats assured you it is a wonderful opportunity for millions of uninsured Americans to acquire health insurance.

            The Republicans have been brilliant in lambasting the ACA without exactly explaining why it is so bad (and also not proposing an alternative) and the Democrats have been singularly inept at explaining and launching it.  So the result is that just about everybody doesn’t understand anything.

            But let’s limit this discussion to one issue.  The Republicans have, in pursuing their attack against the ACA (they voted to repeal it over 40 times), tried to convince perfectly healthy young people—dubbed the “young invincibles”—that they are being ripped off by the government and forced to buy health insurance they don’t need. 

As an “old vincible” I can guarantee those healthy young people they are going to need health insurance if they live long enough.  (Of course, if they intend to die in the near future the Republicans may have a point.)

Actually, the “government” already requires citizens to purchase insurance and punish them if they do not.  If you drive a car, most states require you to purchase accident/liability insurance otherwise you can’t register your car and drive it.  So state governments require you to get insurance or they penalize you by not permitting you to drive.

There is another insurance the private sector forces you to buy--home owners insurance.  All banks require you to purchase home owners insurance otherwise they won’t give you a mortgage.

But let’s get back to the Republican argument that the “young invincibles” are being forced to pay for the health care of the sick old fogies (which eventually they will become but they don’t know that yet). 

I have been a home owner for over 30 years and during all that time I have paid county taxes.  A portion of those taxes goes to pay for the school system to educate the children in the county.  For all of those 30 years I have never had a child in the school system so why should I be required to pay taxes to educate the children of the “young invincibles”?  Because, the local government requires me to do so although I get no benefit from those taxes.

A basic principal of insurance is you pay for it in the hope you will never need it.  You pay for car accident/liability insurance but if you never have an accident you pay for the accidents of those who do.  You pay for home owners insurance but if your house never burns down you pay for those whose houses do.  You pay country taxes even if you have no children in order to educate the children of those who do.

But that principal of hoping you never need the insurance you pay for does not apply to health insurance because sooner or later you are going to get old and feeble and sick and get cancer or heart disease or diabetes or Alzheimer’s or something equally dreadful and you are most certainly going to need it.   So since you will absolutely need health insurance at some point in the future, what you pay now to treat the current old fogies, the young invincibles of the future are going to be paying for you. 

Look at it this way.  You can’t wait to buy life insurance until you die which you certainly will.