By Lingfeng Li

Not content to merely spend money it doesn’t have, our government wants you to join in the spending too.

The health care reform bill, recently passed in both the House and Senate, will require all Americans to buy insurance, even if they would rather spend their money on other ventures.  The bill is especially pertinent to young adults, who have the highest uninsured rates of any age group.

Based on Census Bureau data covering 2006-2007, there are roughly 19 million young adults adults (aged 18-34) without insurance number, about 41 percent of the total 47 million Americans without insurance.  When the new legislation is enforced, all these young adults, who are most likely to be healthy of all age groups, will be required to purchase health insurance or face government fines.

It is not difficult to figure out why young adults would be forced to obtain insurance.  With regulations being placed on insurance companies to end discrimination based on prior medical conditions and to lower premiums for the elderly, increased expenditures and lost revenue must be made up somehow.

Young adults tend to incur fewer costs for insurance providers, and can be used to effectively subsidize care for older Americans, who are more likely to need expensive medical care.

While there is nothing wrong with the young helping to support the elderly, it would be a blatant violation of freedoms to force Americans to buy any product to ensures that this happens.  Liberty is an integral part of American values and should guarantee Americans the maximum amount of individual freedom possible without condoning active trespasses of others’ rights.  For the government to stipulate how Americans must spend their disposable income is an overstep of its power and reeks of socialism.

The government has no authority to dictate how its citizens should spend their income, just as it has no authority to force its citizens to be charitable.

The issue here is not that universal health care will add meaningfully to some lives, it is that the same program will significantly restrict others.  While every American should aim to contribute charitably to society, there is no constitutional mandate or legal requirement that states they must do so.  Each individual should be credited with a moral conscience and allowed to judge whether or not they can afford to contribute to others’ well-being.

For the government to assume it understand each household’s finances (it can’t even balance its own checkbook!) and needs best is ideologically problematic, shows too little respect for freedom and liberty, and can affect many Americans negatively.

Restrictions on income can especially affect young adults, who may believe it more advantageous to allocate their funds to small businesses, investments, or savings.  But on principle, even if they were to choose to buy a new TV or car with money otherwise devoted to health insurance, it should be their prerogative to spend their money in whatever way they so choose.

Common sense aside, there is also nothing in the constitution that gives Congress the power to require all Americans to buy insurance.  However, there is a great deal of precedent set against these new regulations, including United States v. Lopez, which questioned the Gun-Free Zone Act of 1990 and whether the government could regulate gun possession near schools on the basis of interstate commerce.  The United States Supreme Court eventually concluded that the Act was unconstitutional, effectively blocking Congressional attempts to use interstate commerce as an excuse to unreasonably expand its power.

That Congress would go so far as to disrespect the Constitution should raise alarm among American voters.  As noble a cause as universal health care is, its implementation insults some of the basic principles on which this country was founded. The choice to obtain health insurance, or not, should remain a private one, a system that best allows for individual responsibility and liberty.

Young Americans have serious cause to be concerned about health care reform legislation, which is too careless with their rights.  This is the not the first time the government has sought to spend the wealth of future generations (see: $12 trillion national debt), and health care reform will set a dangerous precedent for continuing this trend in the future.