Mandatory Health Insurance, Is It Even Possible?

I can across an interesting article, that prompted me to write about mandatory health insurance, but nobody seems to be asking the most important question. Can they do it?

Basically the article says that mandatory health insurance will require you to have health insurance or you face a penalty. Of course, I already knew that. Massachusetts is the first state that already has mandatory health insurance. New Jersey and California are two other states that have mandatory health insurance on their mind.

I guess the real question I have to ask, is it possible nationally? Can any candidate make it mandatory across the United States, or will they have to encourage each state to adopt the policy. Currently, in two states, car insurance isn't even mandatory.

Maybe I'm missing something, but if they can't even make car insurance mandatory across the board, now you hear talk about making health insurance mandatory across all 50 states, even though only 1 state has adopted such a policy?

I'm not going to argue and say mandatory health insurance is correct or not. I'm just wondering how any candidate plans to put a mandatory health insurance plan into action, or if it's even possible. For any insurance changes, each state has gotten to decide. I don't see that changing in 2008.