HCR Passes

[Alex]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

And it seems to me the mandate to buy private insurance is thankfully toothless, because I object to it, too - and would expect it to be overturned on constitutional grounds.

Perhaps, but if the mandate is unconstitutional then it doesn't matter how toothless it is, it'll still be unconstitutional and subject to being stricken.

And if there is no mandate then not allowing insurance to exclude people from the pool due to pre-existing condition is not sustainable. One without the other means the incentive then is to not pay for any insurance until you get sick then pay for insurance only so long as it takes to not need the coverage at the moment any longer and repeat as necessary.

And that is true regardless of whether the insurance is private or provided by the government. Which is why Medicare has a very strongly enforced mandate that charges people that won't even be regularly eligible to benefit for another 40 years.