Obama: Healthier people must have insurance forced on them

Happy Obamacare Day! No, I'm not actually watching this shameless propaganda marathon. But Jake Tapper reports that Obama's thinking on individual mandates has evolved (and that's never good, because politicians' 'thinking' only evolves in one direction -- to the left). Obama was against the individual mandate before he was for it:

President Obama said that while "mandates are an example of... something that I was resistant to during the campaign... this is an area where people have made some pretty compelling arguments to me that if we want to have a system that drives down costs for everybody, then we've got to have healthier people not opt out of the system.

If you can only keep the 'healthier people' in the system by forcing them, so be it. In Obama's world that's called fairness.

More from Jake Tapper:

Continued the president, "So, those choices are being made by employers constantly, right? I can't pass a law that says, 'I'm sorry, employers, you can never make changes to the health care plans that you provide your employees.' What I can say is that the government is not going to force you to, your employer or you to join a government plan, for example. If you're happy with it, and your employer's happy with it, keep it."

He won't need to pass such a law because a government plan will push private insurers out of business.

Continued Mr. Obama, "If your employer is not providing you the health care that you need, then we're going to give you a set of options to make sure that you continue to have health care. And I think that is the kind of commitment that the American people expect and, you know, it, and I think is achievable, as long as we stay focused on driving down costs, as well as expanding coverage."

Next on the Obama agenda, and he thinks this is also achievable: a plan that will allow Americans to have their cake as well as eat it. Also, free lunches for all Americans.

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