During his campaign for the nation’s highest office, President Obama was reluctant to mention any type of healthcare mandate as part of his touted healthcare reform package. At the very least, the stance applied a contrast between his goals and those of his primary opponent, the now-Sec’y of State Hillary Cinton.

How times change. As the congressional lawmakers get ready to debate the merits of their major healthcare reform packages, Obama is giving some early clues about how he’ll respond — and his intentions acknowledge, for the first time, that he may be “open” to the requirement that all Americans have healthcare coverage.

Always one to listen to the political winds as they apply to the all-important issue of healthcare reform, Obama knows the move is not necessarily a risky one, as much as it is a public posturing and testing of the proposed tenets of Max Baucus’s plan; his includes less of a government influence on public financing of healthcare (as opposed to Ted Kennedy’s advocacy). Says Baucus,

“I will stop at nothing to deliver a health reform bill that works for families and businesses to the president this year,” Baucus said.

Obama has described using waivers to circumvent the mandate issue as it concerns subsidizing care for the very poor. This could symbolize the compromise Obama may be looking for in the competing senators’ plans for reform.

The hardship waiver idea is under consideration by the Senate Finance Committee, which also is considering giving tax credits to certain individuals so they can afford health care. Kennedy and House Democrats are looking at giving subsidies to the poor to help them buy coverage.

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