Thomas Daschle: “The mandate I am referring to, of course, is the status quo mandate, the mandate that says those who pay will pay for…”

“The mandate I am referring to, of course, is the status quo mandate, the mandate that says those who pay will pay for those who do not pay. If we had ever designed a new system and somebody had come to this Chamber and proposed that method of financing, I think we would probably have laughed them out of the Chamber. That Senator would not get one vote for the mandate that exists in the system today: Those who pay, pay for those who do not pay. How inequitable could it be? Yet there are those who suggest we keep that current mandate, that we keep the current system, that we allow what they would call a volunteer system to prevail. Yet that volunteer system is no more than an euphemism for the status quo mandate that exists right now. There are those who suggest it is inequitable, but that the alternative ought not involve the employers; that it is too burdensome, somehow, for the small employer. My question to those advocates of a shift in the responsibility onto the family is, if it is too expensive and too burdensome for a small business, how is it not so burdensome for small families, for young families just trying to get started? How is it that a family mandate is more politically acceptable than a small-business-shared responsibility? What we are suggesting is that businesses and families share this responsibility, as we have for generations.”