On the recordSeptember 10, 2012
I want to say one other thing about this idea of the individual mandate then-Governor Romney supported in Massachusetts. We all have it within us--I think especially as Americans--that we don't like to be told anything. We don't like to have a mandate put on us. Well, as the chair of the health committee, and someone who is very much involved in this process of getting the Affordable Care Act through, I want to make it very clear, you don't have to buy insurance. There is no individual mandate that says you have to buy insurance. I want to make that clear, and I want to keep making that point. I have been making that point for months now. You don't have to buy insurance. It just says if you don't buy it and you get real sick and want to get in line to get health insurance, you pay a penalty. They call it a free-rider penalty. Have we ever seen that before? How about Medicare? We have it in Medicare. When you turn 65, you don't have to get Part B. No one tells you that you have to do that. If you wait until you are 67, 68, 69, or 70, you pay more. You will pay a lot more than if you picked it up at 62 or 65 when you retired because it is a free-rider penalty. So we have to get rid of this idea that this is some kind of individual mandate that you are forced to do something. No, you are not forced to do it. But if you are a free rider, and you say I will only go when I get sick--like the car accident the Senator pointed out--yes, you pay a penalty. That is all.…
