Regarding the analogy that the individual mandate is like forcing everyone to buy food.

[hfojvt]

35. funny story about that

when I was uninsured, I walked into an ER and received fairly expensive care, for which I was billed $800, including some $500 for X-rays that I really did not need at all. I paid that all, $50 a month, except for the last $200 or so. For some strange reason when I owed about $200, they said I could pay off the whole thing if I just paid $100 now. I found that to be odd.

I also found it odd that they let me pay the $50 a month using my credit card. Why not insist that I pay the whole thing with my credit card and then make minimum payments to the credit card?

Then later I had insurance and I noticed something strange. For example, I had a hospital stay for which I was billed $13,900. I remember that amount because the hospital sent me that bill and for a while I thought maybe that was the remaining amount that I owed and that I was doomed forever to a life of severe poverty. Later it turned out that my insurance company had paid $12,400 and that I only owed $400.

Yet, because I had insurance I ended up paying $1,100 LESS than what I was billed. If I had been uninsured, I would have been on the hook for the whole $13,900.

Later I had arthroscopic knee surgery and I was billed $4,000 or so. Of which the insurance company paid about $1200 and I paid nothing.

My insurance company also regularly bills my dentist less than he bills me. Back when I had no dental insurance, I paid the full amount.

So tell me again how the uninsured are being subsidized by the insured, because it looks to me like the insured are getting the discounts.

I also know a guy with no dental insurance who has been in pain for months because of his teeth, some of which he tried to pull on his own. He has not worked since mid December, as far as I know, so he cannot afford food and rent, much less health insurance, which may or may not even include dental.