The Hill News

In the previous administration, I served as an advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on health care reform, specifically assisting him in developing a proposal to cover the medically uninsured, relying on market-oriented principles and incentives and private insurance.

It’s no secret that then-Secretary Mike Leavitt was at that time intrigued by the plan introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Robert Bennett (R-Utah), the so-called Health Americans Act, even entering into discussions with the authors to see what changes they might be willing to make in exchange for his support. But, among others, there was one issue in particular included in the bill that was a show-stopper for a Republican Administration -- and arguably a leading cause of the latter Senator’s loss of his very seat: "The Mandate."

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