[gmac]

Taking personal responsibility sounds all very well (leaving discussion of the impossibility of meaningful free will for another occasion), but private health insurance is a special kind of stupid. For example, some people are born with diseases or disabilities that we can say with certainty will cost millions in care over their lifetimes. Those people are obviously uninsurable. So health systems that don't leave people to die must involve an element of the collectivisation of risk.

[xrange]

>Those people are obviously uninsurable.

...if they were born to parents who had insurance they would have been covered.

>So health systems that don't leave people to die must involve an element of the collectivisation of risk.

...insurance is all about collectivisation of risk, is it not? You are paying in, hoping to never collect, and the money you pay in is used to cover those who did need it.

[colechristensen]

This is very explicitly incorrect.

In America as of 2014 you cannot be denied coverage, charged more, or denied treatment based on health status.

There is no longer an "uninsurable" American citizen.