Reason Foundation  Reason Foundation  Health Insurance by
Command  The trouble with the individual mandate  Steve Chapman
January 21, 2010  The nice thing about elections is that they
give you a choice not only of people but of policies. In the
2008 primaries, for instance, Hillary Clinton offered a health
care plan that required everyone to get insurance, while Barack
Obama’s blueprint had no such mandate. That was about the only
difference in their suggested solutions.  It was a big one, to
hear Obama tell it. He aired a TV ad attacking Clinton because
her scheme “forces everyone to buy insurance, even if you can’t
afford it, and you pay a penalty if you don’t.”  He, by
contrast, stressed that he would encourage more coverage by
offering federal help in paying for it, while trusting in the
ultimate wisdom of individual Americans to make their own
decisions.  Voters had a clear choice, and they chose Obama and
his voluntary plan over Clinton and her compulsory approach.
That settled that.  Or so we thought.