Comments on: Policy matters

By: Francis W. Porretto

Francis W. Porretto — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:48:08 +0000

Well, Charles, there are a couple of differences between auto and health coverage. First, the roads are state property. (Forget that “public property” jazz; there never has been such a thing and there never will be. He who holds the rights over the transfer, use, and destruction of a thing thereby owns that thing.) An owner has the right to set the terms under which others may enter his domain.

The other big, salient one is that drivers on a shared road have placed one another at mutual risk. Each one is a major source of harm and hazard to the others. Since driving is a discretionary act — from what I recall, breathing is not — to mandate that drivers maintain the ability to compensate those they might injure is more reasonable than to mandate that an individual be able to pay for medical services for himself.

Of course, the notion that that ability must be provided by a third-party insurer requires more justification than this, and I’m not sure such a justification exists. Time was, if you could escrow a certain amount of money as self-insurance — I believe the amount was $100,000 — you were exempt from the requirement to carry liability insurance in New York State. But that exemption was quietly repealed by our legislature a couple of decades ago. Probably at the behest of the auto insurance companies.

By: BPD in OKC

BPD in OKC — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:53:36 +0000

I think the government should mandate that the body shop would have to fix your car if you don’t have insurance. Maybe the government would also put caps on how much the mechanics could charge you. Now that would be nice.

By: CGHill

CGHill — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:15:04 +0000

Of course, if the government mandated that the body shop had to fix your car — but let’s not give anyone any ideas.

By: Aero

Aero — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:14:46 +0000

Did you happen to see the news report a few weeks ago about the random stops in MWC? Out of 125 motorists stopped, 106 had no auto insurance. Bless my Uninsured Motorist coverage!

By: Don Mecoy

Don Mecoy — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:00:22 +0000

An interesting analogy. One difference is that if you show up at a body shop with no insurance, no one feels obligated to fix your car.

Thanks for reading.