“I suspect the mandate is there, but in a more constitutionally friendly way.
i.e. instead of forcing you to pay x dollars, they increase everyones taxes by x dollars and then give them an x dollar tax credit for buying insurance.”
It’s actually worse than a mandate. The mandate forced the people who use medical services to pay for their own insurance. This instead taxes some people to pay for other people’s insurances.
Another federal welfare program.
Yep.
This is why I’m continually working to get my “taxable” income as low as possible.