2010

Affordable Care Act: “Mandate” provision of: Regarding the minimum level of health coverage mandated by the Act (= “bronze” level plan with a high-deductible), “The law also provides exemptions from the mandate on a number of grounds, including financial hardship. . . . For fear of a backlash, Congress was unwilling to back up the mandate with sanctions. If people without insurance fail to pay the fines they owe, the Affordable Care Act does not authorize criminal penalties, the garnishing of wages, or liens against property. . . . The mandate’s central purpose is to deter people from opportunistically dipping into the insurance funds when they are sick and refusing to contribute when they are healthy, but there are other ways to bring about that result” (Starr, 251).