My Question For Barack Obama Tonight

No, I won't be at the townhall-style debate tonight, but I've been thinking.  What if I were?  Given that participants get their one question, and only one, that may or may not be chosen, what would I ask?  How would I use that access?

Well, I've had a look at the official Obama health plan, and I noted the following on the web page:

Under the plan, if you like your current health insurance, nothing changes, except your costs will go down by as much as $2,500 per year.

If you don’t have health insurance, you will have a choice of new, affordable health insurance options.

Interesting.  So the uninsured would have a "choice of new, affordable" insurance options.  I'm not quite sure how that would translate to insuring the uninsured, so I had a look at the full plan. (pdf)  I was looking for something that, for all the demagoguery centered around the uninsured coming from Democrats whenever they discuss health care in America, would indicate a commitment to providing "insurance for all."  Something that was absolutely certain to reduce the numbers of uninsured.

I found nothing.  Look for yourself.  Scan the entire document.  All that's there is a statement that a) costs will be lowered (along with the requisite demagoguery against evil insurance companies) and b) "affordable" options will be available.  Here's the money 'graph on the former:

Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe we must redesign our health system to reduce inefficiency and waste and improve health care quality, which will drive down costs for families and individuals. The Obama-Biden plan will improve efficiency and lower costs in the health care system by: (1) adopting state-of-the-art health information technology systems; (2) ensuring that patients receive and providers deliver the best possible care, including prevention and chronic disease management services; (3) reforming our market structure to increase competition; and offering federal reinsurance to employers to help ensure that unexpected or catastrophic illnesses do not make health insurance unaffordable or out of reach for businesses and their employees.

Here's the money 'graph on the latter:

Under the Obama-Biden plan, Americans will be able to maintain their current coverage, have access to new affordable options, and see the quality of their health care improve and their costs go down. The Obama-Biden plan provides new affordable health insurance options by: (1) guaranteeing eligibility for all health insurance plans; (2) creating a National Health Insurance Exchange to help Americans and businesses purchase private health insurance; (3) providing new tax credits to families who can’t afford health insurance and to small businesses with a new Small Business Health Tax Credit; (4) requiring all large employers to contribute towards health coverage for their employees or towards the cost of the public plan; (5) requiring all children have health care coverage; (5) expanding eligibility for the Medicaid and SCHIP programs; and (6) allowing flexibility for state health reform plans.

No individual mandate.  No employer mandate (other than a tax increase to contribute to optional public plans).  So having read through the morass, here's my question:

Mr. Obama, given your stated committment to providing health care (i.e., insurance) for all who are without, other than children for whom you propose federal coverage, and given that your plan has no mandate for coverage, what is your backup plan to correct that when your plan fails to force people to obtain coverage?  Are you hoping that every state follows Massachusetts' lead (which is to Massachusetts detriment) at the current time?

I have a feeling the answer to that would be more illuminating about the ultimate destination than all the free market terminology thrown about in the plan.