The Individual Mandate
Caption: Mitt Romney called an individual mandate, "the ultimate conservative idea".
One of the biggest points of contention in our debate versus the Berkeley College Republicans was the so-called “individual mandate”. Under this provision, individuals would be required to either have insurance or pay a fine.
The individual mandate wasn’t always controversial. It’s supported by a broad range of wonks and policy experts. In fact, until it became a political football, it was even championed by prominent conservatives. Mitt Romney himself called it, “the ultimate conservative idea”.
I’m honestly surprised this is controversial. It’s actually based on a conservative principle—that you shouldn’t be a burden on the rest of society. Right now, if you go into the emergency room and you don’t have insurance, others pick up your tab. In essence, you’re free riding. What this does is make sure that no one free rides on others.
Now, this won’t hurt anybody. If you can’t afford insurance, the government will help you buy it. Yes, it’s setting a new requirement, but it’s also giving you the means to meet it. We’re not interested in penalizing you; we want to give you coverage. If you have trouble affording it, that’s okay. We’ll help you, not punish you.
The individual mandate makes good, policy sense: it stops free riding, and it won’t unduly punish anyone. It shouldn’t be a controversy in our national health care debate.
–
P.S. Before anyone asks, yes, it is Constitutional.
“E pluribus unum.” said Romney, “Let’s hear it for me.”
I think the reason the individual mandate isn’t popular is that many Republicans don’t like the government making them get insurance and many Democrats think the government should guarantee health insurance as a right of citizenship, rather than requiring citizens to buy insurance. Basically, you have right wing free market folks and left wing Medicare-for-all folks. That leaves people like Max Baucus and Evan Bayh to champion the individual mandate, and centrists of that sort tend to prefer inaction to action as it pisses fewer people off in the short term. That doesn’t leave much enthusiasm out there for the policy.