The plan was even supported by the “brains” behind conservative research, the Heritage Foundation. In 1989, the think tank released a report called “Assuring Affordable Health Care for All Americans,” which argued, among other things, that
young people who choose to go uninsured “
are playing Russian roulette with their continued good health” and that “
many Americans find it financially difficult to obtain the protection they need against the financial impact of illness.”
Their solution? For starters, they encouraged the passage of legislation that would have “
mandate[d] all households to obtain adequate insurance”:
Many states now require passengers in automobiles to wear seatbelts for their own protection. Many others require anybody driving a car to have liability insurance. But neither the federal government nor any state requires all households to protect themselves from the potentially catastrophic costs of a serious accident or illness. Under the Heritage plan, there would be such a requirement.
Furthermore, to prevent so-called “free riders” from taking advantage of free heath services because they couldn’t afford it, thereby forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab, the Heritage Foundation also proposed a plan to assist needy families:
In [such cases when insurance is prohibitively expensive], the Heritage plan envisions an expansion of subsidized risk pools operated through the states… [I]nsurers are invited to compete to cover the pool with rates subsidized by the government.
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