Decision by Democratic Presidential Candidate Clinton to suspend campaign decreases prospects for individual health insurance mandate, Wall Street Journal reports

The recent decision by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) to suspend her campaign "will deal a blow to supporters of a key element in the tussle over universal health coverage: the idea that all Americans be required to buy or have health insurance," the Wall Street Journal reports.

According to the Journal, the issue of an individual mandate, which represented an "important tenet of Sen. Clinton's health care plan and the only substantive difference" between her proposal and the plan of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), has become "dominant ... in the national discussion over how to expand coverage to the country's nearly 50 million uninsured."

However, with the decision by Clinton to suspend her campaign on Saturday, the "concept of a broad insurance mandate lost its most prominent platform" and "is likely to fade from the national stage" for the remainder of this election, the Journal reports. Obama, whose health care proposal would require health insurance for children, "hasn't ruled out" an individual mandate as an "option down the road," but he maintains that such a mandate would prove "ineffective without first making insurance plans affordable," according to the Journal. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) opposes an individual health insurance mandate.

Robert Laszewski, a health care consultant and analyst, said, "Neither of the two presidential candidates still standing believes it's necessary," adding, "So we're not going to have anyone talking about it."

In addition, after "gaining considerable political ground, especially at the state level, the concept has suffered other setbacks lately, too," with the recent failure of a California bill that would have implemented an individual mandate and "mixed" results for a Massachusetts law that includes such a mandate, the Journal reports (Fuhrmans/Goldstein, Wall Street Journal, 6/7).

NBC's "Nightly News" on Sunday included a comparison of the differences between McCain and Obama on health care and other issues (Cowan, "Nightly News," NBC, 6/8).