Mandate not so mandatory

Interesting op-ed in the LA Times yesterday from one of the architects of the Clinton and Obama health plans. Jacob Hacker, a man who recommended both candidiates include a mandate that all individuals purchase health insurance, also says that the mandate’s not all that
necessary to achieve real reform. That flies in the face of the mandate-backers (and insurance
companies) who insist that health reform must require everyone to buy insurance or
all those uninsured free-loaders won’t get covered. The real barrier to Americans obtaining health care is cost. Until someone comes up with a decent argument for how insurance will be made affordable – and switching everything over to electronic medical records just doesn’t cut it – it’s unthinkable to force everyone to buy it.