Last Friday, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean said something rather astounding on MSNBC. Dean said that the individual mandate, the controversial provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that requires people to maintain health coverage, won’t survive long enough to kick in by 2014. A court decision or political opposition will strip this provision from the law by then, he predicted. This was not the surprising part. A collection of states is already trying to block the individual mandate in the courts on the grounds that it’s unconstitutional. And there’s no doubt the individual mandate is very unpopular, making it politically popular to oppose it.

What Dean said that was surprising is that he believes the individual mandate is unnecessary. Huh?