I'm just gonna say it. The mandate to purchase health insurance sucks. I know it does. If you don't have insurance and you are suddenly faced with the prospect of buying it, it's scary, expensive and overwhelming and it would be easier to go back to the status quo.
No.
The status quo is what got us here.
I have employer provided coverage, though they pay only a portion and I pay a portion. Year after year after year, the premiums go up. Sometimes that increase is mine to shoulder, and sometimes my employer covers it. My plan is over $7K annually. These constant increases in price are *the direct result* of increases in the cost of healthcare. The increases in costs of healthcare are the direct result of *two* things: greed, and the uninsured mooching off the system by getting their sore throats and ankle spraigns checked out in hospital ER rooms.
We might not be able to stop greed, but we can stop people from being unisured.
Now, let's not forget, almost everyone, universally, who supports the ACA was probably in favor of a universal, single-payer program covered by taxes. Medicare, for everyone. It would have been perfect. It's what other countries do, it works, and with the proper regulations it can control costs. But oh no, Conservatives in this great nation opposed that - it's too expensive, it will never work, it's Hillarycare, no one wants a government nanny, lines will be long, care will be rationed, there will be death panels - every dishonest, outright false fear tactic in the book was used to prevent an expandsion of Medicare for all from coming into being. Conservatives had a better idea - it's about *personal responsibility* they said. It's a private marketplace - lets keep it that way, they said. Let's just enact a mandate to purchase health insurance, they said, and costs will come down. They even did it in Massachusetts, with a Republican governor who called it his 'landmark' and 'career defining' legislation.
So that's what happened. The conservative right got what they wanted. They fought tooth and nail to make sure Americans did not get a socialized medical insurance plan that covered *all* Americans. They wanted the mandate, and now they've got it. They wanted their cake, and to eat it too.
Enjoy. I'm sure it's delicious.
