The state of Massachusetts, which is even more insane and corrupt than California, already had defacto Universal Health Care mandated by Court order and State legislation. The people of the state also were overwhelmingly in favor of Universal Health Care.
The problem was that these Universal Health care mandates were unfunded in the form of "obligation to treat" patients who either could not or would not pay for the medical treatment, which was bankrupting both the private health care providers and the state health care system
Romney Care essentially rationalized and formalized the add hoc system of mandates into what was intended to be a workable system with a realistic funding mechanism.
As Mass Gov, it was Romney's responsibility to take the will of the people of his state and try to make it into a workable system. Unfortunately the people of Massachusetts are morons and lunatics when it comes to health care so the system was destined to fail from the start and it has in fact failed spectacturally
Of course, predicatively, the system did not work as intended and has become a real disaster with high costs and cost over runs combined with really lousy health care for all in the system, as all socialized medical schemes around the world eventually devolve to.
There simply is no free lunch in health care because modern high quality health care is intrinsically expensive and providing for any given level of health care is not a "human right" to be mandated out of thin air by a nanny state government, it's an individuals personal responsibility to provide adequate health care for themselves and their family and to take responsibility for paying for their health care .
Until Americans understand this and get rid of their entitlement mentality the system is going to spiral out of control until the system implodes.
The law should be clear that health care providers cannot be mandated to provide unlimited medical services to all people, especially those that have no intention of ever paying for their medical treatment.
Correct. A mandate to treat is as odious as the mandate to transact.