The Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, is typically understood as a product of progressive Democratic politics. But the legislation's intellectual DNA tells a very different story. The core mechanism of the ACA, the individual mandate requiring Americans to purchase health insurance from private companies through regulated marketplaces, was originally conceived by conservative economists and championed by Republican politicians as the free-market alternative to government-run healthcare. Understanding these origins reveals how political tribalism can transform a policy from conservative innovation to liberal flagship without changing its fundamental structure. The individual mandate concept emerged from the Heritage Foundation, one of the most influential conservative think tanks in Washington, in the late 1980s. Conservative health  ...