As I have said before, as conservative Justices go, John G. Roberts is fairly good. He joined the liberals and kept the Individual Mandate as constitutionally legal.
Kennedy fell for a rather foolish argument, but Roberts came through with liberty and justice for all.
He followed the same reasoning I did - if the Government can tax you - and exempt people from a tax if they buy things, then it can fine you for failing to buy something. They are effectively the same thing, and the Supreme Court agrees.
What does this mean for the future of US healthcare?
Well, with enough Democrats in the Senate to block a House law, Obamacare will not change. While it is just barely within the range of possibility that Obama will not be re-elected, it is extremely unlikely that we will also lose so many Democrats in the Senate that we won't be able to block Health care revocation.
In addition, the court said that the Federal government's powers to limit Medicare spending is restricted - no threatening to take away the funding for certain things. But that was a relatively minor move.
More importantly, Medicare will likely have changes initiated by the GOP anyway. It is getting very costly and unsustainable. Someone's going to have to do something soon, and the GOP has refused to accept any Democrat led ideas for a long time.
If they can come up with something reasonable, it will pass.
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