Is Health Insurance An Economic Activity?

House on Fire

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Is your decision to purchase health insurance an economic activity? Interpretation of the phrase ‘economic activity’ will decide the fate of Obama’s attempt to regulate the health insurance sector. On the face of it, your decision to spend money to purchase health insurance seems like an economic activity.

However, when you consider the macro economic perspective and consider the role of health insurance in an individual’s life, one is forced to admit that it is a health related decision and not an economic one.

This issue is flummoxing judges all over the country and an average person with limited knowledge of the law is hardly going to find the answer. The primary issues is whether we ought to decide the fate of such an important law on the basis of such a narrow factor.

Does the government have authority to take all such decisions necessary to improve the lives of its citizens? If yes, then it certainly should be invested with the powers to regulate the health insurance sector.

Critics worry that making health insurance compulsory is only going to increase the deficit without enhancing quality of care enjoyed by the citizens of the country. There have been instances where health insurance was made compulsory with mixed results.

However, that just one of two states implemented such a decision may well be why it did not work. This is the argument used in favor of gun control laws. What has not worked in a state or two will suddenly assume a bigger import once implemented on a Federal or National level.