Over the past few weeks I have been following the health care reform debate. Of particular interest to me has been the arguments made in the lawsuits that are seeking to repeal the recently approved legislation. The primary arguments of these lawsuits are that government cannot mandate that people purchase insurance and government cannot penalize someone for not purchasing insurance. Another argument heard from legislators is that it is wrong to expect those with insurance to subsidize those without.

As I considered these arguments, I quickly realized that we already have such a mandate in place.

Under Missouri state law, all individuals owning a car are required to have automobile insurance.

Without insurance, cars cannot be licensed, drivers caught without insurance are fined and audits are conducted on a periodic basis to determine who has a licensed vehicle but isn’t carrying proper coverage.

Also, all drivers are required to carry uninsured motorist policies.

Although such a mandate might have been overlooked in good economic times, it is now causing undue financial burden upon families. With breadwinners losing their jobs and homes being foreclosed, it is becoming difficult to pay ever-increasing auto insurance premiums.

Since the same arguments made to repeal health care reform legislation can also be made against the state mandates for automobile insurance, I believe it is time that a referendum petition effort be started to remove this unjust mandate.