Since the SCOTUS ruling yesterday, liberals have been in a pure state of ecstasy. Never before has a conservative policy been so popular on the Left. Yes I said conservative.
If you can strain your brain back to the era of pre-2009 you will remember that the Republican answer to health care reform was the individual mandate. In fact, Mitt Romney passed the Heritage Foundation backed, Gingrich endorsed mandate in Massachusetts. Candidate Obama on many occasions stated his indignation towards the individual mandate. As Karl Rove points out:
The flip-flop that has taken place by the two men captures the nature of our current political state. First, Candidate Obama wanted a public option but President Obama capitulated to the Insurance and Pharmaceutical companies and their respective lobbies. Candidate Obama expressing frustration that Bush worked with the Pharmaceutical Industry in his Medicare reform said, "That's an example of the same old game playing in Washington. You know, I don't want to learn how to play the game better. I want to put an end to the game playing." Between this promise and the promise of the public option, one was doomed to fail coming from a President who has found it hard to live up to his many promises. When Obama was pushed to adopt the conservative individual mandate by the powerful moneyed interests he had to betray his own principle. This corrupting influence led to Obama embracing Romney's stance resulting in Mitt arguing against his very own position in the interest of political gain.
The individual mandate does not solve the problem at the heart of the health care situation. The root cause that 40 million people don't have health insurance is because it's simply too expensive. The problem is not solved by forcing those 40 million that don't have health care to just buy it. Some say that the mandate will cut costs by forcing freeloaders to buy insurance rather than racking up unpaid E.R. bills that the government then pays for. But evidence from Obamacare's predecessor Romneycare suggests otherwise. A Massachusetts state government study in 2011 found:
"Health care spending continues to outpace inflation, wage growth, and other measures of economic growth in Massachusetts."
For a deal that forces individuals who can't afford health insurance to buy it, a guarantee was necessary that costs would be curtailed. The jury, however, is still out while insurance companies are guaranteed billions of dollars from millions of new customers.
If you watched MSNBC or heard many Democrats talking in the past couple days, you would believe that this was some monumental progressive reform, a victory for the common man. But the truth is, it's a conservative reform aimed at pleasing the special interests first, the people second. By no means am I saying that the status quo is better. Indeed, there are many noble provisions of the bill such as not being denied for pre-existing conditions, young people can stay on their parents' plan until they are 26, and no lifetime cap. I would be remiss to not say it was a step in the right direction but that doesn't change the fact that the interests of the people were once again surpassed by corporate interests.