The "universal health care" plan from Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) is basically a nation-wide version of the failed Massachusetts plan.

The Baucus plan does include an individual insurance mandate (unlike the Obama plan, which does not, although President-elect Obama has stated that he "could support a mandate if the system proves impossible without one.")

In Massachusetts, the approach of individual mandates, employer mandates, benefit mandates, a state-run "insurance exchange", and state-subsidies has merely led to skyrocketing costs and long waiting lists. Individuals, insurers, and providers are prohibited from negotiating in the free market to their mutual benefit, but are instead forced to act against their own rational judgment and instead follow the state's requirements for health care and health financing. The bad economic consequences are a predictable outcome of this violation of the fundamental right to contract.

Adopting the Massachusetts plan at the national level would only multiply these problems 50-fold.

One definition of madness is, "Trying the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results." If that's the case, perhaps we should refer to this as the "Mad Max" plan...