Original_Intent wrote:Required car insurance is liability insurance - insurance to insure that you can compensate someone for property damage or harm to their person from your operation of the car. So it is to make sure you can take care of the other person if you are at fault. Comparing it to medical insurance is apples to oranges.
Very good point.
Car insurance is also insurance for accidents, unexpected events. Health insurance covers many accidents and unexpected events, but is mostly used for routine medical care and is more like a prepaid healthcare plan than it is like insurance.
The reason it is this way goes back to the high income tax rates encouraging employees to other general healthcare coverage as "insurance" since it was tax deductible in the IRS code. The most troubling aspect of the prepaid healthcare dictated by the government is these parts that are not really insurance, but that dictate health standards and prices (cost fixing) for non-emergency healthcare. Chances are that will kill as many people as it "saves". At the same time it removes the market incentives from making choices and so has the effect of growing the healthcare industry unnaturally (ie it's a market manipulation that distorts things) and leading to unwise and unnecessary services and drugs. What a mess, and what an intrusion on our lives!
Car insurance is also not required in all states, but even in states like Utah where it is required most people still get uninsured and underinsured coverage. In states where it isn't required the cost of uninsured and underinsured coverage isn't necessarily higher, since most people get auto insurance anyway and people without insurance still travel between states and such.
