If the ACA Is Abolished, Then It's Pure Battle between Private Health Ins. and Single Payer

[andym]

66. Legally it might be different for single-payer

since single-payer could be done as a tax, which then automatically includes the health care coverage. People of course would be free not to pay. The tax would be enough to provide minimally acceptable health care coverage.

In fact, I think that the mandate in HCR could have been done as a tax that includes government insurance, with an opt-out to allow people to keep their private insurance. The government insurance could have been a public option (the simplest choice) or provided a voucher to be used on the exchanges. For those who could not afford to pay the tax, it could have been also made a tax credit given in the form of a voucher which could only be used to buy insurance on the exchanges.

The key idea is that a tax is allowable under interstate commerce, while a mandate may be problematic-- we'll see in a few months what the court says.

(you should make your post an OP, so that your point can be explored in detail)