Under the new federal healthcare law's individual mandate, most Americans who do not buy health coverage will be penalized starting in 2014. The requirement is one of the most controversial aspects of the overhaul. One reason the individual mandate was created was to attract as many healthy people as possible to the individual market to offset the demands of the many sick people who will be buying in, and who have medical needs that drive up costs. But it's hard to predict whether the carrots and sticks of subsidies and penalties will suffice to bring people into the system, when there are so many are unemployed or underemployed people, many earning less in today's economy than before and worried about job security and prospects, the New York Times reports.
