No individual mandate? No problem.

The briefs and oral arguments before the Supreme Court regarding the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act would have benefited from close attention to two opinions by Chief Justice John Marshall, which are referred to only in snippets.

The Obama Administration argues that the individual mandate is the glue that holds the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) together. But the Administration's argument for the mandate has it all backwards. In fact, the individual mandate will increase the amount of cost-shifting resulting from uncompensated care.

The Supreme Court hearings on the Affordable Care Act got to the heart of the matter Tuesday morning: Is it constitutional for the federal government to require most Americans to purchase health insurance? The debate was heated at times, meandering at others. We asked our panel of health law professors to help us dissect the arguments.

Chief Justice John Roberts compared the requirement in President Obama’s health care law that individuals purchase insurance to forcing people to buy cell phones so they could better access police, ambulances and fire trucks in emergencies.