Because it seems like I'm the one asked to pay for it. From what I can tell, the health care mandate means I have to start buying health insurance. This is why I vote for Democrats? So my monthly expenses have to go up under threat of law? I live paycheck to paycheck. That doesn't mean every dollar goes out to creditors, but a lot of them do. And now the federal government says I have to add another bill to my monthly total?
I don't think the people supporting this mandate are thinking things through.
I typically make 20k, give or take a grand, a year. I am always behind on my bills. But I can always reneg on my bills and have that service removed. When I don't pay my bills, they come after me to pay what I owe, but they can't keep charging me after I stop paying for the service. The mandate is a path to tax slavery. Can't make the payments and get your insurance canceled? Don't worry, we'll hit you with a gigantic tax penalty next year! Awesome!
"Subsidies" are supposed to "help" close the gap in poor peoples budgets, but they won't unless they are 100% subsidies (which they won't be). Less than 100% subsidies means the federal government will push individuals and families on the margin closer to the edge. Once the republicans get power again...
Mandating that people who do not get health insurance through their job to buy it on their own means the federal government has just inserted itself into people's monthly bill calculation in a big way. In fact, its really hard to see how, in light of the taxes I still have to pay at my relatively low income level, why paying even more money to some health insurance company, under threat of federal law, is beneficial to me.