The Supreme Scream: Obamacare After the Court Ruling

by Dean Baker

The conventional wisdom following the oral arguments before the Supreme Court last week is that, at the least, the health insurance mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act is going down. Many observers thought it likely that the Republican-controlled court would strike down the entire bill. Either way, it will be necessary to do some serious rethinking of health care policy.

The simpler case, where the mandate is struck down but most of the rest of the bill is left intact, could likely be repaired without great difficulty. The mandate that everyone buy insurance was a quid pro quo with the insurance industry. Insurers are prohibited from discriminating against sick people in issuing insurance policies; in exchange the government is going to force healthy people to buy insurance.