Matt Zeitlin: Impetuous Young Whippersnapper

So apparently when Obama went on Meet the Press today, he said that to discourage free-riding when young, healthy people don’t get health insurance until they’re sick, his plan would “charge a penalty if they try to sign up later.” While of course I’m waiting for Cohn and Klein (sounds like a good law firm…) to weigh in, preliminary reports indicate that this is something of a big deal. I mean, hell, Paul Krugman is happy about it. Now, I’m no health wonk, but if you charge a penalty to people who don’t sign up for health care until they need it, isn’t that basically using the same enforcement mechanism as a mandate…