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Well, if it is private insurance not provided by the employer, what business is it of the government to mandate you do it before you can be employed?
If the government wants to mandate that I have insurance, it makes no sense to make employers the gatekeeper for the governments enforcement. Create an Internal Insurance Service and require that we file annual paperwork with the government proving coverage and creating criminal liabilities if we don't. Otherwise it is feels like saying I can't get a job (that doesn't involve a car) without me providing my employer with evidence that I have car insurance.
Social security presentation is a requirement for employment because all legal citizens are automatically enrolled and the employers are required to withhold payroll taxes (regardless of your actual status) and provide detailed reporting on who gets credit for that contribution. That is, the employer has a vital role in the government program. Since all legal residences are enrolled automatically, it is also secondarily evidence that you are legally eligible for employment. If the employer is not involved in the insurance, I fail to see what role the employer has in it; it strikes me as a personal matter.
If health coverage would be a requirement for employment that is a pretty startling shift from the move towards health insurance being a obligation of employment to being an obligation for employment.
If it is government run and provided health insurance, then again, I wonder what the necessity would be in making the employer the middle man of enforcement?
If it is somewhere in between then I'll wait and see what actual proposals she makes. Her interview on NPR today still had most insurance being provided by employers and creating incentives and tax breaks to encourage increasingly small business to offer insurance.
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