The individual mandate, a Republican idea which shows how far to the right the Dems have gone

[girl gone mad]

75. The FIRE sector took over the Democratic party some time in the 90s..

or maybe even in the late 80s.

The way I see it, progressives who actually understand finance and know how the insurance industry operates are the ones who are dead set against the mandates, for good reason. In order to function as intended, health insurance has to be a really bad deal for the vast majority of the people. This bill cost shifts the risk of required emergency care costs from the government (yes, its the government that bears most of these costs now, not insured people, contrary to the industry spin) on to young workers, primarily. That's the last thing our economy needs right now.

If we want to provide a level of basic health care and preventative services to the people, it should be done through the existing Medicare infrastructure, not by forcing every citizen to buy a private product which fundamentally exists to deny its customers health services whenever possible.