Without the individual mandate, if they enforce the rest of ObamaCare, the health insurance industry will not collapse, nor will it implode. It will evaporate. Gone in thirty seconds.
The plan B for the Left, if there is severability, is to expand the void via Medicaid. Medicaid will reach well into the the middle class. The states will be key in this fight. We could have highly socialized medicine states that fail compared to more enlightened states with robust private health care markets. We are seeing a similar development with right to work states vs union states.
That's why eliminating only the individual mandate will be, at best, a Pyrrhic victory. If the federal government can require insurance companies to cover various expenditures (contraception, wellness visits, mammograms, PSA tests, etc.) with no co-pays or deductibles and individuals can select out of the insurance pool, then either insurance premiums for those who remain in the pool will go through the roof or the companies will stop writing policies. In either case, the federal government will have an “excuse” to move in and “rescue” the health insurance system at taxpayers’ expense by expanding Medicare/medicare to cover everybody.