Kelllogg Professor, David Dranove, is one of the best Healthcare academics and commentators that I've come across. His blog, Code Red, is appointment reading in my RSS Reader. He has a great point on the parallel between national defense and healthcare below that I never thought of before reading it today.
"Conservatives who oppose insurance mandates need to answer the following questions: Are you going to mandate that providers stop treating the uninsured? Or are you going to mandate charity? If neither, then the uninsured are going to receive care and free ride on the rest of us. Government has every right to act on the behalf of the majority and limit the free riding. Look at it this way. Conservatives endorse the right of the government to raise taxes to pay for the national defense, lest those who do not want to pay their share free ride on the rest of us. Just as the national defense protects all of us, so do our medical providers. The parallel to health care is close to exact."
