Mandates are suddenly the devil. Even the progressive movement's favorite presidential candidate in 2008 devilishly included individual mandates as a component of his healthcare reform plan.
Like all three major Democratic candidates, however, John Edwards also proposed "at least one plan would be a public program based upon Medicare" as part of his health exchange. The question is whether President Edwards, or President Hillary Clinton for that matter, would've been more successful in achieving it. Who knows.
Again, the maximum penalty for opting out of the system will be $750 per year. Compare that with the maximum penalty for opting out of Medicare -- the loss of Social Security benefits. That's punitive. If families above the subsidy level are going bankrupt and people are melodramatically wailing about possible jail time over $62 per month, they have bigger issues than the individual mandate.