“I suspect the mandate is there, but in a more “constitutionally friendly” way.
i.e. instead of forcing you to pay x dollars, they increase everyone’s taxes by x dollars and then give them an x dollar tax credit for buying insurance.”
It’s actually worse than a mandate. The mandate forced the people who use medical services to pay for their own insurance. This instead taxes some people to pay for other people’s insurances.
Another federal welfare program.
Yep.
This is why I’m continually working to get my “taxable” income as low as possible.