Giving in On Health Care Reform?

On Monday President Obama took a significant step back on his health care reform bill. President Obama said that he is willing to amend the law to allow individual states to  opt out of the most critical aspect of the law: the insurance mandate. Under this amendment, states would have the option of not mandating health insurance for all citizens, as long as it could create some other viable option for coverage. In order to be approved for this waiver, the state must meet two requirements:

  1) The state must create another plan that will cover as many citizens as the original health care bill would.
  2) This alternative plan cannot further increase the federal deficit.

If this amendment is passed, states that earn a waiver will still be given the same money by the government to support their new plan.

Although the original law allowed for waivers to be applied for in 2017, Obama's offer to move this date up to 2014 is a significant step back for health care reform. The most important aspect of the bill is being diluted.

Should states be allowed to opt out of this insurance mandate or was the original health care law the best idea? Is this a political move to curb skepticism of the health care reform bill?