Many People Don’t Need Health Insurance

As usual, politicians are complaining about the fact that 47 million Americans supposedly don’t have health insurance. But many young people just don’t need health insurance or health care. In my 20s, I never went to the doctor or dentist (except once when I cut my scalp on a sharp object in a Los Angeles parking garage; the garage owner paid me a small settlement as a result, even though it was partly the result of my own negligence, and I didn’t demand any money), even though I had employer-provided health insurance during most of that time. I never suffered any ill effects as a result.

Betsy McCaughey, New York’s former lieutenant governor, has an op ed today in The Wall Street Journal, in which she points out that mandatory health insurance is a ripoff for young people, and that it effectively forces them to subsidize the health care of older people. She also points out that many uninsured people are voluntarily uninsured, and that roughly half of the uninsured either have incomes above $75,000 per year, or are eligible for existing health-care programs like Medicaid if they would only sign up. For those who don’t have access to the Journal, her article is summarized here.