Is making individuals pay for health insurance or pay a penalty constitutional? That, over three days last week, was being argued in front of the US Supreme Court. At this point it's any body's guess, however, a decision will be reached sometime in June.
In additional to the individual mandate, what else will need to be taken out of the Health Reform Law in order to protect it from abuse? At the very least, guaranteed issue coverage would need to be taken off the table. And possibly open enrollment periods added in. Without this there would be no way to protect from people jumping on and off plan when they needed care......which would be catastrophic.
During the several days of testimony the more liberal Justices seemed to drive questions that would uphold the law while the conservative Justices were not as sure about congress' power regarding making people purchase health coverage. The Justices include 5 Republicans and 4 Democrats.
This is a very big deal to the Obama Administration. He has even issued a "Challenge" to the Supreme Court to uphold the law. If this law fails or at least a major portion (Individual Mandate), it could have devastating impacts on his re-election effort.
