CNN reported yesterday that Carly Fiorina had endorsed an individual mandate in 2013 while opposing Obamacare in general. (I wrote about it in the Corner.) Last night she put out a new statement announcing a change of position: “In 2013, I was in an argument on TV in which I once again said, ‘I think Obamacare remains an abomination.’ As part of that argument, I also said that I would agree with the conservative Heritage Foundation’s catastrophic coverage mandate as part of a plan that would ensure those with preexisting conditions could be covered. Since then, conservative health care experts have come up with significantly better alternatives to ObamaCare, including Representative Price’s and Governor Walker’s, just to name a couple. To be clear, I believe that we must find a way to cover people with pre-existing conditions–but I do not believe we need a mandate of any kind to do that.”
Here’s an article I wrote in 2011 arguing against an individual mandate, and here’s a post about conservatives’ history on the subject.