I am perfectly fine with removing the mandate, but ONLY if those people who choose to not carry coverage are 100% responsible for the costs of their treatment, and yes, that does include emergency lifesaving treatments, no exceptions.  You don't want insurance, then it is your responsibility to be able to pay for that treatment.  That responsibility may take the form of having to as a part of refusing to carry insurance to be required to post a bond, where you pay some percentage of your coverage, say $10,000 gets you $100,000 in treatment, so if you don't want health insurance, cough up 10k to a holding company and they will pay up to 100k in emergency medical costs.  In short, don't be a deadbeat.