Sign 'em Up

It's too bad it's been left to Cato's Michael Tanner to point out that individual mandates aren't working very well in Massachusetts. Lots of people aren't following the mandate to buy insurance, and there's no real enforcement mechanism in place. That doesn't mean we should all become libertarians, but it does mean that if we want to create a government program that gives health insurance to everyone who doesn't have health insurance right now, what we need is give them all health insurance. This mandate idea looks okay if you get to assume the policy equivalent of a frictionless plane but the enforcement issue is a huge real-world problem that's being introduced for the not-very-good reason of wanting to put a "centrist" facade on the policy.