individual mandate=tax on those most likely to use healthcare that wont be paid for. [View all]

[mopinko]

nobody has to buy insurance, but if they can afford it, they do have to help defray the cost to the system of the federal mandate that hospitals treat everyone.
if it isn't fair for people to pay a tax to support that system, then maybe the mandate to treat should be lifted, too.
medicaid is being expanded so that more people who cannot afford insurance can have it. the tax is on those that are not poor enough for medicaid. many who pay it will be able to afford insurance but will not buy it. some will even be eligible for insurance that they just don't bother to sign up for it.

nobody has to buy insurance. they just have to pay a tax so that hospitals don't go under giving care that they won't get paid for. it is federally mandated that they do. who pays? this is about trying to put that burden on those that created it.

for the record, i do know that single payer is the smartest thing to do. but it ain't gonna happen in this environment.
the real mandate is to treat people without being paid to do so.