@ KTF- Sweetheart, people should be required to have insurance. As long as people like you stop single payer or socialized care (a la NHS in the UK) from being implemented here- you need to be assessed a tax, penalty, whatever, to help cover the costs of care should said uninsured person require medical attention. That, or you can pass a law allowing doctors and hospitals to turn away people who cant afford to pay. But then you and your ilk would have blood on your hands. NEWSFLASH: those people who cannot afford medical care let their curable problems fester and get much, much worse. They then mae trips to the ER, where hospitals are required to treat people regardless of ability to pay. They either eat the costs, or they pass it on to INSURED patients, driving up the price of everything from CAT scans to tylenol capsules. YOU (assuming you are insured) pay the price via higher premiums. What should have happened was the Federal government forming a non profit company, like the Postal Service (please no whining about how the USPS is awful- they are not, they are one of the best Postal systems in the world), to compete with private companies. Any profits would have gone to reducing premiums and or R+D. You just want to be able to bitch and moan about paying more taxes.