KingCyrus: "With a title like "If every single person simply...", this thread has SO much potential...."

were at page 4 and counting... alot more discussion on this topic than I expected.

Libertarians are purists. Oftentimes too much so.

I suspect that most libertarians out there would prefer a universal health care system to the Affordable Care Act. This is because universal health care would be funded by taxes in general. The part of the ACA libertarians hate is the "mandate". That "force" or "compulsion" is anathema to them in their sophomoric philosophy.

@Jeff: A libertarian thinks universal healthcare funded by taxation is just as immoral as universal health insurance with an individual mandate, because taxation is a use of force and force is an essential evil. This follows directly from their non-aggression principle, and is stated several times by Psilosha. I do not agree with this position, but I think it should be accurately understood whether or not one agrees with it.

@Lethologica: Sure, but non-dogmatic libertarians usually accept some form of taxation to fund national defense, law enforcement and some other essentials. Universal health care, funded by taxation in general, is less bad than a mandate which compels someone to take specific action or face consequences.

Those specific uses are justified on the principle that the only acceptable use of force is to prevent the use of force against others.

US system benefits the corporations that run health insurance. These businesses are profitable, and thus society as a whole pays in more than it receives in medical care. To me, the fact that the government institutes corporate profit as law is despicable. This isn't even considering the indirect problems the system causes such as massive inflation of medical costs.

There are two sensible solutions. If you care about your fellow man, then institute single payer so that people's money goes to actual healthcare and not corporate profits. If you're an individualist, then make healthcare insurance optional by law and leave it up to individuals to finance their expenses. Obamacare is a crappy bandaid.

In my understanding of libertarians, there are 3 levels of taxation:
1) Taxes for "acceptable" uses (military)
2) Taxes for "unacceptable" uses (most social programs)
3) Specific taxes compelling behavior (ACA requirement to buy health care)

I think even Obama thinks Obamacare is a crappy bandaid.

It is the bandaid he just about got away with, and it helped million get affordable health insurance. So i'm pretty sure he is proud of achieving this one thing which he set out to achieve - despite it being a crappy bandaid.

There were better ideas, but Obama chose a plan created by the Republicans in order to get it to pass. Businesses like it because they could get out of paying health care for their workers or at least lower their costs to compete with other countries that don't have to pay for it. Health insurance companies like it since they could collect premiums from more healthy people instead of mostly sick people that would file claims.