ANSWER: It is Totalitarian Economic Command and Control which has been proven countless times to be miserable and and unmitigated disaster.
Not to mention that federal attempts in this area would be patently unconstitutional, if ANYONE cares about the Constitution anymore. The Constitution is merely the ONLY LEGAL bulwark of freedom against the tyranny of the feds. Maybe that would be a good reason to actually care about reinstating the Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Land
So was the idea of forcing people to pay a "tax" if they didn't carry health insurance.