full disclosure: I tend towards the heavily Democratic side of the spectrum, but I can quote you the Washington Post on the topic of "reasons invoked to make it mandatory".
"The theory behind the mandate is simple: It's there to protect against an insurance death spiral. Now that insurers can't discriminate based on preexisting conditions, it would be entirely possible for people to forgo insurance until, well, they develop a medical condition. In that world, the bulk of the people buying insurance on the exchanges are sick, and that makes the average premiums terrifically expensive. The mandate is there to bring healthy people into the pool, which keeps average costs down and also ensures that people aren't riding free on the system by letting society pay when they get hit by a bus." full source here
If someone wants to opt out, which I have seen quoted several places as being possible in the case of a) extremely low/no income, b) Native American descent (they are exempt due to various treaties, I assume), and c) religious objection.
And the option as I have seen it quoted is that when the mandate goes into affect in 2014 they can simply pay a fine of $95/1% of their income (climbing to $695/2% of income by 2016) and that will be the end of it.
no subject
"The theory behind the mandate is simple: It's there to protect against an insurance death spiral. Now that insurers can't discriminate based on preexisting conditions, it would be entirely possible for people to forgo insurance until, well, they develop a medical condition. In that world, the bulk of the people buying insurance on the exchanges are sick, and that makes the average premiums terrifically expensive. The mandate is there to bring healthy people into the pool, which keeps average costs down and also ensures that people aren't riding free on the system by letting society pay when they get hit by a bus." full source here
If someone wants to opt out, which I have seen quoted several places as being possible in the case of a) extremely low/no income, b) Native American descent (they are exempt due to various treaties, I assume), and c) religious objection.
And the option as I have seen it quoted is that when the mandate goes into affect in 2014 they can simply pay a fine of $95/1% of their income (climbing to $695/2% of income by 2016) and that will be the end of it.