Individuals, Aggregates, and the Affordable Care Act
Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Today was a big day at the Supreme Court, which has just issued its ruling on Obamacare. For those who are interested, you can get a transcript of the court's opinion here . Needless to say, the case has attracted a lot of attention. But I'd like to bring one issue to the fore that, to my mind, has not received enough attention. One way to think about the polarized debate regarding the Affordable Care Act is that it pits the individual against the community. Proponents of the law see it as an attempt to fix the health care system as a whole. They worry that our premiums are too high, that Medicare is on a fast track to insolvency, and that insurance companies refuse to cover pre-existing conditions. Critics, on the other hand, tend to dwell on what it will mean for individual consumers of health care. They worry about limiting individual care, that bureaucrats will get in between doctors and their patients, and that I will have to pa