Mandates, then and now

Obama defends the Constitutionally iffy idea of mandating everyone to buy health insurance:

"What it's saying is ... that we're not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you any more than the fact that right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance," he said.

Except, of course, for the many people who do not drive.

People have forgotten that Obama campaigned against such mandates throughout 2007 and 2008.

Obama's position was different from his two nearest rivals, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, who included mandates for individuals to buy health insurance in their plans for reform. It was an issue that got downright contentious on the campaign trail.

At a debate in South Carolina, Edwards said Obama's plan really wasn't universal health care, since it didn't have a mandate to ensure everyone was covered.

Obama replied that his plan was universal (a claim we rated Barely True ) and explained why he was against a mandate: "A mandate means that in some fashion, everybody will be forced to buy health insurance. ... But I believe the problem is not that folks are trying to avoid getting health care. The problem is they can't afford it. And that's why my plan emphasizes lowering costs."

And just what aspect of the currently-discussed plans will, with certainty, lower costs? The public option might have done so. But the public option is dead, or nearly so.

Of course, during the primaries, the Obots demonized Hillary when she suggested mandates, even though she had no enforcement mechanism. (The currently-discussed plans do.) From the Medical News of February, 2008:

The Obama campaign last week distributed a mailer that said, "Hillary's health care plan forces everyone to buy insurance, even if you can't afford it ... and you pay a penalty if you don't" (New York Times, 2/4).

Why, that's...that's...awful!

Just for fun, let's sample the kinds of things progs were saying back then. Here are some HuffPo commenters in April of 2008:

Now only if Clinton can start pull magic rabbit out of her huge rump and win the nod. Then she can start criminalizing the working poor maybe have Halliburton build forced labor camps to help Clinton's corporate over lords.

Gosh. And the Obots wonder why the Clinton voters retain a grudge. The Obots also wonder why the current political dialogue is so coarse, inflammatory and conspiratorial. Then again, you must know by now the Obot motto: "We may do what others may not."

do you have any idea what the monthy cost for insurance premiums for the avg family of 4 will be after the tax credits, subsidies and premium caps of Clinton's plan are accounted for?

More HuffPo, from December of 2007:

Just after Bill Clinton was elected, he convened a meeting of economists, CEOs, labor leaders and many others in Little Rock. The purpose of the meeting was to argue out what should be done about the ailing economy, with many of the ideas expressed there later becoming part of Clinton's successful 1993 economic recovery package. The whole thing was on television.

Sound familiar? This is essentially what Obama is proposing for health care after he's elected. If Hillary Clinton had done this on health care in 1993—instead of convening a secret task force—she might have been able to build a stronger public case for reform.

Yeah. Remember those televised hearings earlier this year? Me neither.

Let there be no mistake; Hillary, the DLC, and Gerald McEntee want to NAFTAtise Health Care. It is their opinion that 45 million Americans are without health insurance not because they can't afford it, but because they don't have access to insurance companies.

This next one is particularly hilarious in light of current events:

If I am "FORCED" by legislation to get healthcare, I could legitimately lose my home. It seems like forcing people to get health care is a form of corporate socialism. Obama's plan is good because it creates competition. He will force these companies to compete for their services. This should naturally drop prices without the price fixing that would occur if the coverage was mandated. Obama's plan is the true free market plan and if you believe in medical being overinflated, the market should adjust and he will allow this to occur before creating mandates for coverage.

Even funnier:

Obama will get us to single payer with a 60% of the vote.............He is a Progressive and will bring the majority of the other side with us.

From D.U., February of 2008:

Mandates dont work Obama has given an example how in Boston the mandate isnt working. If we had a universal health care system there would be no reason to mandate it.

What Obama is doing is smart, lets lower health care costs and make it affordable. cut out the lobbyists and special interests that fund the Clinton campaign and while doing that set up a plan for true universal health care.

The reason Obama doesn't want to mandate it is that he doesn't think a mandated health plan will pass Congress; that's all there is to it.

And how could I resist the opportunity for a Daily Kos fly-by? On February 3, 2008, the lead article was particularly obnoxious toward Hillary -- indeed, it was every bit as vile as the stuff now said by Glenn Back about Obama:

Hillary’s plan does not reduce the cost of health insurance, yet mandates that every American buys it. This plan will be taken apart by the GOP, who will argue that Hillary will simply take more and more money out of your paycheck for the same old health insurance that you’ve always had. Barack’s plan is much harder to attack, because it focuses on reducing the costs of health care and contains no mandate.

Comment:

If the truth is that she plans on making people with a $75,000 income pay $5,000 for a family policy, even though SHE thinks thats "affordable," that family doesn't have that money.

This DK post, also from February of 2008, quotes a Sean Wilenz piece on Obama's negative ads. (I can't find a working link to the original.) Wilenz:

Most of the recent correctives have concerned outrageously deceptive advertisements approved and released by Obama's campaign. First, in Iowa, the Obama camp aired radio ads patterned on the notorious "Harry and Louise" Republican propaganda from 1993, charging falsely that Senator Hillary Clinton's health care proposal would "force those who cannot afford health insurance to buy it, punishing those who won't fall in line." In subsequent primary and caucus campaigns, the Obama campaign sent out millions of mailers, also featuring the "Harry and Louise" motif, falsely claiming that Clinton favored "punishing families who can't afford health care in the first place."

Wilenz went on to discuss the great Obama NAFTA deception, which I have often mentioned in these pages.

Finally, for THE laff of the day, let us look back at Talking Points Memo, February 24, 2008:

The key point seems to be the issue of mandates - Obama would require that all children have health insurance, Hillary would extend that requirement to every American. Whatever the abstract merits of the competing proposals, one thing seems clear - Obama has yet again demonstrated his superior understanding of the American temperament, and that bodes well for the plan advanced by the presumptive nominee.

To which the Obot readership replied:

Wow. Excellent analysis of how Obama's appeal is based not merely in blind adulation, but in the concrete sense that his approach shows a better understanding of how progress takes place in American culture. This just happens to be embodied most clearly in the contrast of his health care proposal, but you can see this understanding of American culture at work in all of this policy ideas.