Like any right-thinking liberal, I feel that the individual mandate is a not-all-that-terrible way of getting toward universal healthcare. Not as good as some variant of “Medicare for all,” but better than what we’ve got now.
It doesn’t fix the fact that the insurance companies are still in the business of denying care to people. And it props up those companies.
And of course, a lot of people resent the mandate. And that mandate might be ruled unconstitutional. If it is, the most popular part of the ACA – the “no pre-existing condition denial” part – can’t work.
If it’s not withdrawn, it’ll kill the insurance companies, and we’ll have to turn to providing health care directly, through taxes, without having a special middleman insurer. Win.
If it’s withdrawn so that the for-profit insurers can continue to survive, I’d love to see a rule that anyone denied coverage by a for-profit insurer could enroll in Medicare. Also win.
Who’s with me?
Secretly Ironic 