Who are you shilling for anyway?
I found the most interesting thing about today's ruling to be that it reversed the lower court's invalidation of the ACA and was instead careful to sever the individual mandate from the rest of the law. That fact seems to have been overlooked by some of the more overzealous posters around here.
Obamacare is dead without the mandate. That seems to be overlooked by you
That's not so. There are dozens of major changes in the law that do not depend on the mandate. A lot have already been implemented. The biggest impact of elimination of the mandate would be political. Obama's goal was 100% coverage which of course was not going to happen but elimination of the mandate would mean even less coverage.
The plan would proceed but with less people covered. The mandate itself is pretty weak. The penalty is not high enough to insure full compliance.
One provision of the individual mandate would exempt people if insurance on the exchange costs more than 8 percent of their income. This would exempt most people in the middle class.
A wide variety of possibilities, some requiring legislation and some not, have been suggested if the mandate is dropped, including:
Creating an open enrollment period each year for about a month when people could obtain insurance more easily, followed by stiff penalties if people try to opt in later.
Creating some kind of automatic enrollment policy in which individuals would specifically have to opt out and face tough penalties.
Tying federal subsidies for Medicaid and tax credits for the insurance exchanges to states passing their own mandates. Len Nichols raised this as one option. By way of metaphor, he wrote: "We do this with highway funds to get states to adopt speed limits that conform with federal policy...It's messy but workable, with some states essentially opting for a minimalist health system."
Some liberals are calling for the revival of a public option or allowing people to buy into Medicare, a point made recently on the blog, Firedoglake. Or possibly a single-payer system.
Princeton sociologist Paul Starr, who warned of a backlash to the mandate before the bill passed, has suggested letting people opt out without a penalty, but then not letting them opt back into the insurance market for five years.
And Mark Pauly, a health economist who was an adviser to former President George H.W. Bush and is considered to be the father of the mandate back in the 1990s, says this version of the mandate may not be needed or effective. "I believe you could achieve almost the same reduction of the uninsured with the subsidies and without the mandate," he told the Washington Post's Ezra Klein in an interview this week.
For its part, the Obama administration publicly maintains that it's not ready to consider a back-up plan. Tanden says White House officials will study alternatives for now just in case they lose at the Supreme Court.
There are numerous alternatives. What that alternative might be would depend a great deal on the makeup of congress.
What If Health Reform Had No Mandate? Politicians, Experts Weigh In | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS