One of the goals of President Obama's health care plan is to provide health insurance coverage for almost every person in the country. There are many uninsured people who do want health insurance coverage but are unable to afford it. However, many of those people are also considered uninsurable because of preexisting conditions (medical problems arising before insurance is applied for). The health care law requires that insurers provide coverage for these people, despite the fact that they have preexisting conditions. The insurers would essentially be forced to accept customers that they would not normally accept.

Insurance companies complain that if they are forced to accept these new customers they will have to increase premiums on everyone in order to cover the newly insured populace with their preexisting conditions. Insurers point out that there is another group of uninsured people out there and that is the group that has no health insurance simply because they do not want to spend the money for it. These are generally younger and healthier people. This group of voluntarily uninsured people is exactly the kind of people that the insurers want as clients.

In order to make it more economically feasible for insurers to provide insurance coverage for the unhealthy group with preexisting conditions, the decision was made that health insurance must be mandated for the healthy group. If health insurance is mandated for the healthy group, then the insurers will be more likely to keep premiums low at the same time they are providing coverage for the unhealthy group with preexisting conditions. This is one of the reasons that health insurance has been mandated for all citizens as part of the health care plan.

Insurers also warn that, without the health insurance mandate, some people will game the system by waiting until they are sick to purchase insurance. Imagine a young, healthy individual who can afford insurance. However, he realizes that, under the health care plan, insurance companies are required to accept him whether he is sick or not. He decides to not buy any insurance thinking that, if he ever gets sick, he will simply buy insurance then. In the mean time, while he is healthy, the insurance company is not collecting any premiums. Insurers argue that it will be unfair, and too costly for them, if they have to provide insurance coverage only when the individual is sick. They argue that they should be allowed to collect premiums while he is healthy because that causes the price of insurance to drop for everyone. The intended purpose of the health insurance mandate is to try and keep premiums low for everyone, while providing insurance for the sick and healthy alike.