>>First, the employer mandate didn't kick in during 2014. The White House knew over a year ago it would be politically very rough, which is why they pushed it back a year.

Come on, dude. As variously attributed to Keynes or Samuelson: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

January 1 has passed without a whimper. Chicken Little was wrong again, not least because most of the affected employers already provide insurance. Now watch what happens to public approval of employer mandate- currently sitting on 60%, rising to 78% as of December 2014 once respondents knew that most of the businesses affected as of 1 January already provide insurance. A cynic might claim that 50% of disapproval therefore appears to be based on temporary ignorance- but IMHO it shows that the public is in tune with Keynes' common sense and is sick of partisan fixed positions, Chicken Littling, catastrophization and FUD. IMHO the days of healthcare as a "devil take the hindmost" proposition are over: in the US as in the rest of the free world, healthcare increasingly is seen as a wider societal obligation, not an exclusive privilege for those who systematically underfunded their own Medicare expectations. Once the funder split for old age care is resolved (expensive older care currently socialized, profitable younger care privatized) you will be in fine shape- apart from the massive overpricing of healthcare that will need to be reviewed next.