No it isn’t and you saying so doesn’t make it so. The mandate of Obamacare is either you buy or you get fined by the government. Everybody knows that. My guess is that this is one more word-pickery in attempting to gin up a false meme. I am sick of it. And guess what. It will not make a difference except to give give false hope to Cruzers and give them a tingle down their leg.
Yes, and that mandate is inextricably linked to the requirement that insurers cover people with pre-existing conditions. If you mandate that insurers cover people with pre-existing conditions, but do not require that people purchase insurance, it creates a YUGE free rider problem: people will just wait until they get sick before buying insurance. It would destroy the insurance market.
You can't have one without the other, which is why BOTH requirements must go (along with the rest of Obamacare).