Health care is constitutional; what now?

Barak Obama’s health care reforms, the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as ‘obamacare’ by its critics, have been one of the most controversial reforms he has introduced in his first term as president. The reform is his signature policy and Republican have been determined first to block it and then to challenge it through the courts. Now that option has failed. The United States Supreme Court has voted 5 to 4 that the requirement for all Americans to secure health insurance is constitutional. For the ruling the four liberals were joined by the conservative Chief Justice John Roberts. The main contention of the opposition to the law had been that congress does not have the authority to punish those who do not wish to take up health insurance through taxes. The supporters of healthcare argued that congress has the power to enforce this through the commerce clause because not buying health insurance shifts the cost of healthcare for the uninsured to the companies and therefore eventually to those who do have insurance through higher premiums. While the court rejected the President’s reasoning it accepted that it was legal due to the commerce clause; Justice Roberts took the view that the mandate creates economic activity rather than regulating it and agreed with the argument that the health insurance mandate is simply creating a tax on people who do not buy health insurance with tax being something congress is constitutionally entitled to impose even if the objective of the tax is not revenue raising.

So where do the republicans go from here? Romney has pledged to repeal obamacare on his first day if elected; something that Justice Roberts would agree with “Those decisions are entrusted to our nation’s elected leaders, who can be thrown out of office if the people disagree with them… It is not our [SCOTUS’] job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.”

Debatabase debate: This House believes that the United States individual health insurance mandate is unconstitutional http://idebate.org/debatabase/debates/health/house-believes-united-states%E2%80%99-individual-health-insurance-mandate-constitutional

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/29/us-usa-healthcare-court-idUSBRE85R06420120629

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/health-care-ruling-motivates-romney-supporters/2012/06/28/gJQAEHQ29V_story.html?tid=pm_politics_pop

http://www.scotusblog.com/2012/06/the-mandate-is-constitutional-in-plain-english/