HEALTH: Save us from the 'insured'

I find myself agreeing in some ways with Harley Duff’s letter to the editor on July 6. Yes, Harley, I wish Idaho had a helmet law to protect people from themselves. I additionally believe that hunters should wear international orange. Both may happen some day I hope. If I talk to state legislators, I usually mention those things.

Do I believe that I should pay for someone else’s insurance? Uh, no, Harley. I have enough problem just paying for my own.

Two things come to mind about the mandate. One is that if you for a moment believe that it will only cost the insured Americans $1,000 additional, you are so sadly mistaken. It might start there, but will balloon up immediately. Secondly, it is a proven fact, not an opinion, that insurance users (read those people you have no problem helping pay insurance premiums for) over use the resource and don’t pay for it. They won’t be treated just for crashes on motorcycles without helmets. They will go to the emergency room for colds, aches, pains and all sorts of things they would ignore if they didn’t have “insurance.”

Canadians come to America to seek medical attention for a reason, not just because they can. The fact that they do, should be a learning point for anyone who thinks socialized medicine is good for us. I’m sorry that Chief Justice Roberts is a craven coward who apparently could not actually follow the Constitution rather than make new extra-Constitutional law.

KENT SETTY

Coeur d’Alene