States look to forestall hypothetical health insurance mandate

New York Times, February 8, 2010

Legislatures in more than two-thirds of the states are objecting to health reform requirements that everyone buy health insurance. Supporters of the mandate argue that requiring everyone to have health insurance is essential to making insurance affordable, even as the government provides some people with subsidies. But opponents say that people should not be forced to buy something they do not want or cannot afford, and that trying to make them do so would be unconstitutional, the New York Times reports.