Alternatives to the Individual Mandate

Kaiser Health News is doing some tremendous reporting these days.  Today they offered some perspectives from a number of experts on alternatives to the individual mandate, recognizing the unlikely chance the US Supreme Court will strike it down when it considers the issue next year.  We think the mandate will be upheld given other precedents that allow the Congress to regulate interstate commerce and tax economic inactivity like refusing to buy health insurance.

Granted, if the Supremes kill the individual mandate, legislative prospects for these alternatives may be slim.  Democrats are in peril of losing both the White House and the US Senate in 2012 (see the current futures markets outlook on these outcomes at InTrade.com here).  Still it’s encouraging to see so many potential options, and even the perspectives that ACA implementation could proceed without it.