Isn't that argument easily extendible to anything optional that is also dangerous..? Also this is an argument from a US perspective. As someone who lives in Canada, where healthcare is in large part paid by taxes, I have no interest in restricting what people do because "it'll cost me more". Leads down a road I don't like
It's a very small step from there to saying that activities like above treeline winter hiking, ice climbing, motorcycle riding, playing football, etc. should be prohibited (or at least require expensive private insurance) because some number of people consider them unreasonably dangerous.
You know that if something is paid by taxes, and you pay taxes, you are footing the bill for it? Yes you aren't going to get an itemized bill with a line item for Jim's cracked skull, but that's still money that could have gone to things like schools or infrastructure or cancer treatments or what have you.
That is what I meant yes, I am okay with paying for stupid things that people do, else we end up with an insane system where are prevented from doing anything even mildly dangerous or disrupted, as it'll cost the taxpayers money.
I'm infinitely more concerned with the insane amount of government waste that happens where that money could go to schools or infrastructure or cancer treatments. I imagine that government waste is orders of magnitude more expensive than cyclists damaging themselves because they weren't wearing helmets, for example.
We do put restrictions on drinking and smoking, such as limiting consumption to certain times, places and age groups, and many places have things like taxes on soda and other such tactics to reduce obesity. We have even heavier restrictions on other activities that don't pose much threat to anyone but the person doing it, such as hard drugs. We don't want to stop people from having fun, we're all willing to bear some cost for our fellow man, but minor inconveniences which lead to big cost savings make sense. Helmets are incredibly beneficial and the burden is pretty light - even when not required by law most people voluntarily wear helmets. Mandatory helmet laws allow cyclists to keep doing what they love while dramatically reducing the number of severe injuries that society at large needs to deal with, it's a happy medium.
