Reply #3: The insurance companies would love that idea.

[subterranean]

They could push all the unhealthy people into Medicare and just insure the healthiest, most profitable customers. Medicare would become a high-risk pool and would be far more expensive than private insurance.

As it stands, there is already a provision to establish a national high-risk pool for people who were denied private coverage. It would take effect immediately after the bill is signed, and continue until 2014 or until it runs out of funds, whichever comes first.

I agree that most people would not mind the mandate so much if they were given the option of choosing a competitive, affordable public insurance plan, or even non-profit private insurance. It's the idea of being FORCED to pay for the profits of insurance companies, and handing taxpayer money to those companies, that doesn't sit well with many Americans (myself included).