BARTON HINKLE: Health-Care Mandate’s Proponents May Have a Hard Time. “Because federal law has infringed on the autonomy of health-care providers by ordering them to provide care no matter what, it must then (so goes the argument) infringe on the autonomy of everyone else to make up for this mistake. Because government has foisted on the taxpayers the cost of Medicare and Medicaid, it then must also dragoon everyone else into a more nationalized system to correct for the excesses of those federal programs. Because it forces insurers to provide coverage, it must force individuals to buy it. In other words, the principal reason for further federal intervention is . . . previous federal intervention. We all must pay for Washington’s sins.”