Presidential candidate Obama speaks out against a private health insurance policy mandate.

[ProSense]

9. First

She’d have the government force every individual to buy insurance and I don’t have such a mandate because I don’t think the problem is that people don’t want health insurance, it’s that they can’t afford it. So, I focus more on lowering costs. This is a modest difference.

...that's correct. Remember there was the issue with Clinton wanting to garnish wages. Obama stressed lowering cost. In fact, he indicated that he would be open to the mandate after affordability was addressed. The issue of affordability and universality is addressed with the plan's structure and mandate exemptions.

Second, Reich actually indicated that Medicare is mandated:

<...>

Unhappily for Obama and the Democrats, most Americans don’t seem to like the individual mandate very much anyway. Many on the political right believe it a threat to individual liberty. Many on the left object to being required to buy something from a private company.

The President and the Democrats could have avoided this dilemma in the first place if they’d insisted on Medicare for all, or at least a public option.

After all, Social Security and Medicare require every working American to “buy” them. The purchase happens automatically in the form of a deduction from everyone’s paychecks. But because Social Security and Medicare are government programs financed by payroll taxes they don’t feel like mandatory purchases.

Americans don’t mind mandates in the form of payroll taxes for Social Security or Medicare. In fact, both programs are so popular even conservative Republicans were heard to shout “don’t take away my Medicare!” at rallies opposed to the new health care law.

http://robertreich.org/post/19972321637