Setting aside the bureaucratic monster this would necessitate, it just seems completely unAmerican.
How can you square fines for failure to exercise with "life, liberty, and the pursuit of hapiness"?
And where in the Constitution is the federal government given the power to perform these things? Even if it were a good idea, I can't see where it's legal for them to do so.
You would still be welcome to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of hapiness". No one would be forcing you to use said healthcare system, but if healthcare was totally free, what's to stop people from totally trashing their bodies then asking for organ transplants on the public dime?
In such a system, checks and balances need to be in place to keep people from 'gaming the system'. IF you wanted to use the public healthcare, then you should be forced to make some compensation back to the public if you are willfully (by using your right to not exercise, or you want to be a smoker, etc.) causing harm to your body which is then causing you need to need extra medical procedures and costing everyone money!
if healthcare was totally free, what's to stop people from totally trashing their bodies then asking for organ transplants on the public dime?
Hell yes, if healthcare was free, I would totally be trashing my body and getting free organ transplants - again and again - I just can't think of a better way to spend my time!
Some people think that way, they just don't say it like that. If you smoke two packs a day, drink until you pass out a few nights a week, and eat fried food every day, you're making conscious decisions that are affecting your overall long-term health.
My point was that if you're going to be using the public healthcare system (that everyone is paying for), then you should have to compensate that system for any damage that you purposefully cause to your own body that will drive up the costs of keeping you alive and healthy. If you live a reasonably healthy lifestyle and then get liver cancer because you're genetically predisposed to it, that's not your fault, and so you wouldn't be charged extra for it. If you got liver cancer as the result of living a hard and fast life, then yes, you should be compensating everyone else, or at least seeing a private physician instead.
but if healthcare was totally free, what's to stop people from totally trashing their bodies then asking for organ transplants on the public dime?
I guess the government is the entity to stop us. After all, as you point out, once you start using public money to pay for something that makes it everybody's business, right?
So now the government is concerned with how I choose to totally trash my body, because it has an impact on public health costs.
And what part of this was good, again? Yes, the part where we got free stuff from some magic place. As much as we want!
No, you'd always be able to see a private physician if you wanted to pay for their services out of your own pocket. If you can afford that, then feel free to treat your body however you want. If you're going to be costing everyone else money because of how you're living your life, then you can pay the difference between the extra costs of your healthcare and the baseline amount spent on the 'average' person.
How can you square fines for failure to exercise with "life, liberty, and the pursuit of hapiness"?
And where in the Constitution is the federal government given the power to perform these things? Even if it were a good idea, I can't see where it's legal for them to do so.