Sheldon Richman on Why the Health Insurance Mandate Is Immoral and Unnecessary

The Obama administration argued to the U.S. Supreme Court this week that people must be compelled to buy medical insurance (designed by the government) or the national medical-insurance market will fail. Thus, Obamacare advocates say, the insurance mandate is consistent with the powers delegated under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The argument, however, contains a fatal flaw. If the medical-insurance market would indeed fail without a mandate, writes Sheldon Richman, it's only because of other mandates the government has already imposed. Thus the government has created the rationale for an extension of its own power.