The proposed policy would be a little different than the recently repealed federal mandate. The state would allow those who pay penalties for going without coverage to use that money as a down payment for an insurance plan.  

Maryland state Sen. Jim Rosapepe, argued that the state's approach was better than the federal one that it was emulating.

"It's not to penalize people," he told Vox. "It was kind of crazy to collect these penalties and then go spend them for national defense. I'm all for national defense, but why not put that money toward buying these people coverage?"

Insurance mandates have been a part of health policy discussions for decades and at times have been championed by Republicans and conservatives. The Heritage Foundation put forward the idea in a policy paper in 1989. A mandate was part of the 2006 health care plan signed into law by Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts.

In the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, Hillary Clinton included a mandate in her proposal for universal health care. Her opponent, Barack Obama, criticized the notion that people had to be forced to buy insurance, saying the problem was that people simply couldn't afford care.

By 2010, when the ACA was signed into law, many were changing their tune about the mandate. Obama was of course supportive, while many Republicans, including Romney, had turned against it.

Now that the federal mandate has been repealed, Massachusetts' mandate will still be in effect. Other Democratically-controlled states may very well move to put in place similar policies.