Michele Bachmann is now a citizen of … Switzerland! Politico reports:
Bachmann (R-Minn.) recently became a citizen of Switzerland, making her eligible to run for office in the tiny European nation, according to a Swiss TV report Tuesday....Marcus Bachmann, the congresswoman’s husband since 1978, reportedly was eligible for Swiss citizenship due to his parents’ nationality — but only registered it with the Swiss government Feb. 15. Once the process was finalized on March 19, Michele automatically became a citizen as well, according to Honegger.
As a citizen of Switzerland, Bachmann can now partake in a healthcare system that is the envy of the world. It has transparent costs, it is consumer driven, and it provides near universal coverage. It also has an individual mandate: all Swiss citizens are required to purchase basic health insurance.
You may recall that the current Supreme Court challenge against Obamacare rests on the contention that its health insurance mandate is unconstitutional.
The Swiss mandate seems to only apply to all residents of Switzerland, so Bachmann may be able to get out of it by not living there full time:
Since 1996, the Swiss system has operated under a Health Insurance Law intended to improve access and affordability of care and to contain costs. All residents are required to purchase basic health coverage from one of a number of competing private insurers operating under market rules set by the social insurance law. Insurers must be nonprofit organizations and must accept all applicants during specified open-enrollment periods with community-rated premiums. About 12 percent of enrollees are in some form of managed care, chiefly fee-for-service plans with a primary care gatekeeping feature.
But now Bachmann can go on fact-finding missions to Switzerland to discover why it is such a terrible loss of liberty for citizens to be mandated to purchase health insurance, despite their "inactivity" in the healthcare market.
