Most of the time I have discussions with conservatives they are all about personal responsibility. In fact, in Massachusetts, the individual mandate was the "personal responsibility mandate". We know that people who are uninsured get less preventive care, wait longer to seek care when they need it, and often end up in emergency departments being cared for once a problem becomes incapacitating or life-threatening. The seeming role of the mandate is to ensure that those who can afford insurance but do not get it take some responsibility for their health care as opposed to leaving it to the rest of us to foot the bill in either higher taxes or higher health care costs to cover their unfunded care.
If not via the "personal responsibility" mandate, then what is the mechanism? On one hand, conservatives want to enforce individual responsibility - all about rugged individualism - but on the other assert that the government telling you that you must be responsible is "taking away your freedom" - freedom as in "...right to screw up (or screw others)" I suppose. It seems either we require all to pay for care (or pay a penalty that can help support their care) or we enforce responsibility by allowing those who do not buy coverage to die. Obviously, during Republican primary debates earlier this year, the idea of allowing those who are uninsured or cannot afford care to die was a popular notion. We ll know that is not going to happen and I have yet to meet a conservative who thinks it is a good idea when it comes to them or their loved ones; when their mothers and fathers are cared for on Medicare. They hate the "Nanny state" when it takes care of others, but love it when it supports them. I suppose it is an issue of deciding "Who are the freeloaders?" Can't be us!
It would really make a difference in how this process is viewed if people could hold consistent positions. When it becomes clear that they change their positions for purely political purposes, it makes them look foolish and frivolous; Mitt Romney, passed and praised such legislation before he was against it. For most of us it is hard to overlook the lack of integrity; sadly for otehrs it is just a matter of telling them what they want to hear.
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