If healthcare is not mandated for everyone, then why have it?
If pre-existing conditions have to be covered, just wait til you get sick and stick it to the insurance company.
No, if pre-existing conditions have to be covered, then a mandate is necessary.
That's right, sink. You can't extend health insurance to those with pre-existing medical conditions without (i) an individual coverage mandate or (ii) single payer. Trump, to the extent anyone can glean his views, appears to support single payer - which is exactly what extending Medicaid to the sick represents. Keep in mind that few folks in their right mind would choose Medicaid voluntarily - many of the best doctors don't even accept Medicaid patients.
There is value in fostering the competition of a private insurance system. ObamaCare fails to do that, but that's not because of the individual mandate. The individual mandate is just about the only aspect of ObamaCare that I support as a conservative. You simply cannot extend guaranteed issue to the sick without a large enough pool of the healthy to subsidize their costs. Tort reform? That can help, but only on the margins. "Competition across state lines"? That can help, but again, only on the margins (and remember that the states have traditionally regulated insurance, so denying that regulatory authority to the states in favor of increased federal power hardly strikes me as "conservative").
No, the conservative solution to the access issue is an individual mandate coupled with a truly competitive insurance market. ObamaCare's failing is not the mandate, but rather its usurpation of competition.