Interview with Mark Pauly

Via Ezra, with Ezra:

Tell me about your involvement in the development of the individual mandate.

I was involved in developing a plan for the George H.W. Bush administration…One feature was the individual mandate. The purpose of it was to round up the stragglers who wouldn’t be brought in by subsidies. We weren’t focused on bringing in high risks, which is what they're focused on now. We published the plan in Health Affairs in 1991. The Heritage Foundation was working on something similar at the time.

What was the reaction like after you released it?

There was some interest from Republicans. I don’t recall whether they formally wrote a bill or just floated it as an idea, but Democrats in Congress said it was "dead on arrival." So that was the end of my 15 minutes.