Oddly, there is more legal precedent for a single-payer system under the (incorrect reading of the) general welfare clause than there is for the individual mandate under interstate commerce.
I’m not sure why they just don’t give a tax credit for insurance payments. That way we buy our own insurance but the government pays for it. (I don’t support that, but it’s more reasonable than single payer or individual mandate.) Oh wait, it’s because the government wants control over the whole health care system.
“I’m not sure why they just don’t give a tax credit for insurance payments.”
Might it be the people they want to bring into the system don’t pay any taxes, or not much. How can you give them a credit? The math doesn’t work out. That’s why.
IMO, it’s because Social Security is going belly up in a few years. They have to kill off millions of seniors before that happens, and they found an easy way to do it: A universal health care system with death panels that will rule that seniors get a lot less care than others because they’re too old.