"When did the American left decide that it was cool to subsidize The Man..."

When the American left BECAME "The Man", duh!

And bkmale beats me to it...curses!

insanely authoritarian progressive movement

*cough* All progressive movements are authoritarian. Whether they're insane is another story.

Catastophic care coverage is a fine idea if you can get it in the state that you are in, but most States have been pressured by the AMA and other medical interests to require that insurance cover all sorts of things that a 20 something is unlikely to need.

This has both raised the price astronomically, and made strictly catastrophic coverage unavailable in most states.

I'm fairly sure the AMA is not the group that pressured NY Legislators into providing "free" mammograms and college physicals. I'm also fairly sure that my doctor would love to get paid fairly, immediately, for routine services without the involvement of an insurance company. I'd nominate vote buying legislators and insurance companies for the villains, because that's who benefits.

MarkD, it is a collection of interests, both pharma, hospital, doctors groups etc.

I believe I read some where that most doctors are not members of the AMA anymore. They went full socialist some time ago.

The insanity is the belief that you, without connections, will make it into the Inner Party.

You'll actually be kissing the ass of some People's Baron (see: "blat") until the day you die. Which will be chosen for you on the basis of The Party's convenience.

Your last line is the most important one. It is not that young people do not need insurance; they do not need the insurance that ObamaCare is forcing them to buy.

Here in Massachusetts, I have reepeatedly made the point that you can have health insurance - even very good health insurance - and still be forced to pay a fine. I've also stated, ad nauseum, that properly priced insurance for young people (ie price is related to their chances of using it, not something that subsidizes older people) is very inexpensive. Young people earn the least amount of money but are the healthiest, so in theory, the system should work. It falls apart when various well-intentioned mandates force people to buy super-comprehensive insurance or pay extra for other people.

Insurance is an overloaded term.

It shouldn't be, of course. It means you pay some amount into a fund that will cover you for catastrophic events of which you'd in no way be able to afford on your own.

It has been overused to mean "medical coverage", for everything from catastrophe to flu shots.

Most people don't need insurance for most medical coverage. Most medical coverage would be affordable in a retail market, to most people, without so-called insurance.

But we've been brainwashed to think that we need something like ObamaCare or people will die in the streets - and anyone that disagrees is a the equivalent of a cold-hearted masochistic murderer.

True story - my nephew wouldn't go to the dentist despite being in great pain, because he didn't have "insurance". We convinced him to go, and cash price for (sadly, tooth extraction at that point) service was just over $100. He had that in his pocket. It's just silliness, that we are so brainwashed into thinking "insurance" is required.

" the AMA and other medical interests to require that insurance cover all sorts of things that a 20 something is unlikely to need."

Oh, so the AMA talked my legislature into covering chiropractic, acupuncture and other flavors of pseudomedicine?

If it brought in dues paying members they'd promote peanut brittle/cocaine enemas