Mandatory Health Insurance Is No Remedy

Re “Mandatory Health Insurance Is Urged,” Dec. 15: With all respect due to the proponents of the proposal to require all California residents to carry their own health insurance, what a profoundly stupid idea. Those who can afford health insurance but would rather pay the entirety of their hospital/pharmacy bills, please raise your hands. Hmmmmm, I don’t see any hands raised.

Could it possibly be that the problem isn’t unwillingness to buy health insurance, but a health insurance industry that has no incentive to make it available at affordable levels? Of course it is. We can only hope that saner minds will dump this stinker of an idea like a hot potato.

Ted Ternes

Sacramento

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Finally noticing that “we have too many uninsured people in this state,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has joined hospitals and insurance companies in urging that everyone in California be required to have health insurance. Will this mean fines or imprisonment for failure to maintain insurance?

Better yet, maybe we can just deport the uninsured, or even all the terminally ill (note -- sarcasm). If we combine that with imprisoning all people who cannot pay their bills, we can eliminate poverty and serious disease. We will be living in a paradise.

Jack Quirk

Northridge