There was a storm of protests after that repub debate when Ron Paul was asked a hypothetical question about a young man without insurance. Some in the audience yelled let him die!
What was missing in all the coverage was the case details. This young man had a job and decent pay but chose not to take the insurance. He decided he would rather self-insure and keep the premiums. When tragegy happened, the question was who should pay for his medical costs. I don’t think society has an obligation to pay for these costs in this case. The person could have bought the insurance but decided to take the risk. Should society take on that risk? I don’t think so. Just like the financial risks that the banks took and didn’t adequately insure. People have complained that they pushed the risk onto society and tax payers while keeping any of the rewards.
The better hypothetical would have been a case where the person did not have a job and could not afford insurance. The moderator is not too clever.