National Registration - Closer than you think?

Unless everybody does their part, many of the insurance reforms we seek, especially requiring insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions, just can't be achieved," Obama said in his address last week to Congress. "That's why under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance -- just as most states require you to carry auto insurance."

So - how would we manage the requirement? We manage the requirement for auto insurance through vehicle registration - would not a health insurance mandate require some form of national registration? How do we determine who is not covered, unless we have a way to determine exactly who should be covered?

In a 1994 report released as a discussion of the previous reforms proposed by Hilary Clinton the Congressional Budget Office said: “A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action,".
Interestingly, the closest thing the CBO could find to mandatory health insurance was the draft.

"Federal mandates that apply to individuals as members of society are extremely rare. One example is the requirement that draft-age men register with the Selective Service System. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is not aware of any others imposed by current federal law," the report said.

In light of the 1994 report, There is only one sure way to avoid a health insurance mandate follow those who fled the draft: Fleeing to Canada