ACA

[DemocratSinceBirth]

I see there are calls to remove the mandate. In the absence of the mandate the whole plan falls apart. I don't get it.

[Puzzledtraveller]

1. What do you think will happen?

To be honest, as I do Medicaid and SNAP, you would be surprised just how many do not know about it. I take the time to inform them of the requirement and their options.

[wercal]

3. Most young people I talk to have no idea there is a mandate

And since they don't do their own taxes, they really won't realize they're paying a penalty.

[Puzzledtraveller]

6. The mandate basically is behavior modification

I do not say that as a good or bad thing but we will see many examples of why you can lead a horse to water but can't make it drink. The young will be one of those examples, as well as those who simply do not care.

[ErikJ]

2. The whole thing is too byzantine

and convoluted. We need Simple Single-Payer. But it is 1000 times better than what we had before--if it doesnt fall apart.

[Skinner]

4. No prominent Democrat is calling for the mandate to be removed.

Some are calling for a delay.

[zipplewrath]

5. That's an assertion

It isn't clear your assertion is true. At best what is probably likely is that without the mandate, those who do buy insurance would pay some nominally higher cost. But that presumes that the mandate is just eliminated with no adjustments of any kind. They could do like Medicare and establish that if you don't get/maintain insurance, when it does come time to get some (because you're sick and now want it) you'll pay a higher price. Or you might pay more for the first 5 years (or get a lower subsidy). Or even pay a fine when you sign up.

There are other ideas for this problem than the one that the conservative, GOP affiliated, Heritage foundation came up with.