Illinois Democratic State Rep. Jonathan Carroll is proposing that, because unvaccinated people are “clogging up the health care system,” they should pay their own hospital bills.
When you think about it, it’s a brilliant idea. Think of the possibilities.
- We could force fat people to pay for their own health care costs relating to heart disease.
- We could force smokers to pay their own health care costs relating to lung disease.
- We could force drunks to pay for their own health care costs relating to liver disease
The list could be a long one. Unfortunately, we live in a civilized society and not a jungle, so it’s not going to happen.
“The vaccine is proven to be the one thing that is stopping the severity of COVID-19, and we are seeing more variants popping up,” Carroll told WCIA. “The experts are telling us, ‘This is now becoming a disease of the unvaccinated.’ The people that are choosing to get vaccinated are not the ones that are clogging up the health care system, it’s the ones that aren’t.”
Punishing sick people to make a political point may be about the most disgusting proposal made during the pandemic. Besides, as we’re finding out, more and more vaccinated people are coming down with breakthrough infections, and an increasing number of those infections are serious.
This is no longer exclusively a “disease of the unvaccinated.”
Related: WaPo Columnist Suggests That the Unvaccinated Should Be Prosecuted
In order to get around some of the legal roadblocks to forcing the sick to pick up their own hospital bills, changes to Illinois law would have to be made.
Carroll’s proposed legislation, which was an idea he said he got from a conversation with his wife, would amend Illinois’s insurance code. The change reflected in the two-page proposed bill would update insurance policies issued or renewed on or after January 2023. While some public figures and celebrities have advocated for unvaccinated people to not be allowed into hospitals for treatment, Carroll’s bill appears to be one of the first of its kind to call for those not immunized to pay for their hospital bills if they have covid.
“We’re in a world where covid is going to be here for a bit, and those who aren’t doing their part are creating new variants and continuing to spreading the disease,” he said. “We’ve tried so many different incentives and conversations to get people vaccinated, but people aren’t listening. And there is a potential consequence to that personal choice.”
Actually, if Carroll is simply trying to problem-solve, denying hospitalization to the unvaccinated sick is a far better alternative than forcing them to pay their hospital bills. First of all, none but the very rich would be able to afford a lengthy stay in intensive care. This would save insurance companies the cost of treating the vast majority of unvaccinated COVID patients.
Second, without care, many more COVID patients would likely die. That’s certainly one way to solve the unvaccinated patient problem: dead people can’t “clog up the health care system.”
Rep. Carroll needs to be censured by the Illinois House, and … What am I saying? He’s a Democrat. In Illinois. The party will probably give him a medal.
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