Quote Originally Posted by bu villain View Post
You are misunderstanding what I am saying. I am not talking about costs, I am talking about participation. There is a tragedy of the commons problem where some people get medical services but don't pay. Not because the rules say they don't have to pay but because they are circumventing the rules. Everyone was already paying for the medical bill defaulters before, and we still will be after Obamacare. So that doesn't change much. The difference is we are controlling how those cost are passed around and forcing everyone to have some skin in the game (via the mandate), rather than letting each individual decide if they want to pay their bill or not.
So why not just charge people a fine who dont have healthcare, and leave it at that?