Automobile Insurance Is not the Same as Health Insurance

In an interview with George Stephanopoulos, President Obama said, “right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase.” Mitt Romney made similar comments when he was interviewed by Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly. Here are some of Romney’s comments during the Tampa debate:

The government, of course, has a lot of mandates, and I know folks don’t like that, but mandates kids go to school, mandates they have to have auto insurance if you have an automobile. And my conservative friends say, “Well, we don’t have to have automobiles,” and it’s like, well, what state do you live in? Of course you have to have automobiles in this nation, and the plan that we put in place was one that was put together by Republicans and Democrats, it works for Massachusetts –

I’m sure there are lots of people in America who do not have automobiles just like there are lots of people who don’t own homes.

The above analogy by Romney is false in several ways. Let’s look at automobile and homeowners’ insurance. Mortgage companies require homeowners’ insurance. It’s not mandated by states. If your mortgaged home burns down, the finance company wants to be sure that it will get its money back, so it requires you to carry insurance for their benefit. If you own your home free and clear, there is no requirement to carry property insurance. You own the property free and clear, so the risk is all yours.