Chief Justice Roberts' rationale fatally flawed

While Chief Justice John Roberts might be correct that the penalty for not purchasing health insurance can be likened to a tax, that is not the case for the premiums that are paid to private insurance companies to avoid having to pay the penalty.

A small portion of the Affordable Care Act is funded by the penalties.

The vast majority of it is funded by the individual mandate, requiring individuals to purchase insurance to avoid paying that penalty.

Also, when considering a case on legislation, the courts take into account the legislative intent, and for legislation that has been in place for a long time this can require a lot of research and can be a real challenge.

However, in this case, we have a clear understanding of the intent of Congress. It went to great lengths not to call it a tax.

To play devil’s advocate, let’s say that we disagreed with the administration and the legislative intent and agreed with Justice Roberts that the individual mandate was, in fact, a tax.

That is a problem for President Obama who pledged not to raise taxes, and Congress which does not want to be seen as raising taxes.

So, in either case, Roberts’ rationale for upholding the individual mandate is fatally flawed.

In light of his majority opinion, however, Roberts is correct when he states that the Legislature will be ultimately responsible for the fate of the Affordable Care Act.

The upcoming November election will decide its fate.