Excerpt: The Senate Finance Committee is exploring whether to impose a mandate that would require individual Americans to purchase health insurance, which has proven controversial in places like Massachusetts where it has been tried. The idea comes in a 63-page 'policy options' paper released Monday by the committee ahead of a private negotiating session Thursday, where it will debate options to expand access to health coverage, as called for by President Barack Obama. The paper refers to the requirement to buy insurance not as a mandate but as 'a personal responsibility' to own health coverage.  MORE >>