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Originally Posted by Bitman
No, you're paying $1000/yr for your own wrecks.
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You do not get your money back if you have no wrecks. On the flip side, if I have a wreck that causes one million dollars in medical damage, it gets paid for even though I have not paid in a million dollars into my auto insurance policy. Everyone with a car is paying for everyone's wrecks.
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This automotive comparison really doesn't work. The government mandates liability insurance, which covers your damage to other people's property. Comprehensive insurance covers damage to your own property, and is totally optional. Health insurance is like comprehensive. And yes, I really believe it should be optional.
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The automotive comparison does work if you allow for the possibility of
high-deductible, catastrophic insurance coverage. This is a type of plan that exists in almost all private insurance companies these days, and is favored by more libertarian types. The end result is you pay for all your own small-time medical needs, the only time insurance kicks in is when your procedure costs more than (for example) $20,000.
Health insurance already is optional--and guess what, we're still not letting people die in the waiting room because they can't pay. We never will. That is an ethical boundary we as a society will not cross, so we might as well create a payment system that can cover it.