Resolved :The U.S. government should not require its citizens to have health insurance.

Evidence is only to be presented when asked for Last speeches, no new evidence is to be presented 1st speech- opening 2nd- rebuttals 3rd- more rebuttals 4th- summary 5th- Closing statement Good luck! PRO- Case Definitions: Health insurance-insurance against loss due to ill health (Princeton University), especially the individual mandate that American citizens must have health insurance. Observation: OBSV 1- Individual mandate Today"s resolution is specifically related to the individual mandate of health insurance, not about Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act. Thus, any argument in this debate that is brought up about Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act should be irrelevant but examples can be used as long as it refers specifically to the individual mandate clause of the act which includes any act to support the mandate as well. Standard: Health of American citizens As long as the Affirmative can prove that when US citizens are not required to have health insurance, and that in the long term, the Health is improved, we should win this debate. With that said we have several main arguments Contention 1: Solvency Subpoint A- Loss of Jobs According to senate. gov: The U. S. medical device industry employs 422,778 workers, 80% of them at businesses employing fewer than 50 workers, who develop products such as pacemakers, artificial joints, and surgical tools. The California Health Institute and Heritage Foundation stated that: In order to pay for the insurance of those under the poverty level, the US Government has enacted an excise 2.3% tax on businesses that make medical equipment, harming small businesses immensely. This has put more than 5.2 million low wage job at severe risk and business losses of $3.5 billion. Subpoint B- Current mandates increase premiums The Cato Organization stated that existing mandates have increased premiums by an estimated 20 to 50 percent. When all citizens are required to get health insurance, health insurance centers are able to rise costs as high as they want, as the people will have to keep buying premiums. This causes less and less people to not be available to afford the insurance. National Academics- Between 1999 and 2008, family health insurance premiums have already rose 119 percent, making the prospect of a mandate even less feasible. The impact is clear- Thousands of jobs are being lost because of the individual mandate. Not only that, but Obviously the US government should not require its citizens to have health insurance. Contention 2: US Medical Research and Medicine Manufacturing will be harmed Under an individual mandate, the health insurance companies will not turn a profit, which will harm many citizens. According to an article by Mike Ward, an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University: 3 US factories produce 90% of the generic drugs. The 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, which was essentially the individual mandate that applied to senior citizens, changed reimbursement from a wholesale to retail model, significantly reducing the ability of factories to maintain their existing profit model. Private insurers followed Medicare's lead. Private corporations will not make products that are unprofitable. This shows that the medial corporations are losing money, harming US citizens in two ways: Subpoint A- Epinephrine Shortage If medical companies decrease in profit, then they will stop manufacturing epinephrine. According to the earlier article, The first shortage of cardiac epinephrine occurred in 2010. It was unexpected. Medical directors had only a thirty-day supply of the drug and no future deliveries were available. With this epinephrine shortage, people with heart attacks might die before they reach the hospital. Subpoint B- Fungal Outbreaks The change from wholesale to retail sale model dispersed medicine production from the three large companies that make 90% of medicines to thousands of other small businesses from around the country. This made it harder for government groups such as the FDA to make sure that the making of these drugs are in a clean area. The result was that a contaminated steroid from a small business got into the manufactured medicine, causing the risk of medicine poisoning to 13,534 patients. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports 678 cases of infection, and deaths. The impact is clear- If medical research and manufacturing are harmed, citizens of the United States might die, and we cannot implement this mandate.