A new study argues that if the goal of healthcare legislation was to cover the most people at the lowest cost, the bill that was passed was the best option that was also politically feasible. Researchers at Rand Corp. analyzed more than 2,000 policy scenarios that differed on elements such as income eligibility for Medicaid, the size of companies subject to the bill's requirements, and the penalties for companies and individuals not complying with the bill's provisions. They found that to cover an additional 4 million people at the same cost, the penalty for ignoring the individual mandate to purchase insurance would have to be 47% higher.
