Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Law professor William Jacobson comments on the so-called individual mandate, which would require that every adult United States citizen purchase health insurance. As an attorney, I'm confident that any such provision would be struck down as unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court. But leave aside the legal question. Morally speaking, a mandate would be an unprecedented and unjustified intrusion in the lives of the people. It's one thing to require liability insurance as a condition of driving a motor vehicle, for that is a matter of harm prevention; it's quite another to require health insurance, for in that case the consequences of not being insured fall only on the person who chooses not to insure. Are we a free people? Why are we even discussing this?