Politics

Is Halbig the End of Obamacare?: Michael Cannon Explains What Comes Next

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Two court rulings on taxpayer subsidies for The Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) underscore that President Obama's signature legislative accomplishment is still a hotbed of controversy—one likely to show up again in the Supreme Court's chambers.

"What this really about is not healthcare, not Obamacare," says Michael Cannon, director of health policy at The Cato Institute. "it's whether the president of the United States is in fact the president of the United States and subject to the Constitution or an autocrat that can impose taxes on his own."

Cannon, along with Case Western law professor Jonathan Adler, is the architect of the current legal challenge to Obamacare. Read their Wall Street Journal op-ed on the Halbig ruling.

Unlike many Republican politicians and conservative pundits, Cannon is no apologist for the pre-Obamacare status quo. Read his excellent 2009 policy study on how "a free market can fix health care policy" for a bracing alternative to both the Affordable Care Act and the muddle that existed before its passage.

About 12 minutes. Interview by Nick Gillespie, cameras by Amanda Winkler and Joshua Swain. Edited by Swain.

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