Forget About the Mandate. Let’s Fix Health Care
This article is for subscribers only.
July 13 (Bloomberg) -- On June 28, the Supreme Court upheldPresident Barack Obama’s health-care law. Opponents andsupporters are still sparring over whether its mandate is a tax.It’s time to get over this debate. The mandate’s mild penaltywas never this law’s central economic and policy flaw.
The legal distinctions among a mandate, a tax, a penalty,or a credit, and between federal and state powers, are importantlegally and constitutionally. But they are irrelevant ineconomic terms for this law.