Why the Individual Mandate, Because Ron Paul is a Hypocrite

UPDATE: "Compassion is out of fashion among the G.O.P.’s base." Read The New York Times, Free to Die.

"During Monday’s debate, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked whether an uninsured 30-year-old who had chosen to go without insurance should be left to die if he falls unexpectedly ill. Ron Paul dodged the question. 'What he should do is whatever he wants to do and take responsibility for himself,' Paul said. 'That’s what freedom is about.' Blitzer pressed the issue. 'But, Congressman, are you saying the society should just let him die?' 'Yeah!' whooped the crowd. But Paul stammered out a 'no.' And perhaps for good reason.

In 2008, his campaign manager, a healthy-but-uninsured 49-year-old, died from pneumonia and left his family with $400,000 in medical debt." Read the Washington Post, Why libertarianism fails in health care.

Someone should ask Paul who paid the medical bills.

As the article notes, "though it sounds nice to say that charities will pick up the slack, any hospital system in America will tell you that even with Medicare and Medicaid assuming much of the burden for the most intractable and expensive cases, charities are not capable of or interested in fully compensating the medical system for the services needed by the un- or underinsured."