Obamacare's Day in Court: Good for Single Payer? [View all]

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http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/03/supreme-court-arguments-bad-obama-good-single-payer

This week, the oral arguments conducted before the Supreme Court concerning the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul seemed to spell bad news for supporters of Obamacare. But there was a moment that could hearten those progressives yearning for a single-payer type of national health care system.

Conservatives have spent the last few years falsely characterizing the Affordable Care Act, which preserves the private insurance system, as a "government takeover of health care." Yet during oral arguments, a lead lawyer opposing Obamacare as unconstitutional suggested an actual government takeover of health care might be constitutional.

In an exchange between Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Michael Carvin—a lawyer representing the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which opposes Obamacare—Sotomayor got Carvin to concede that a single-payer system would be constitutional:

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: So the—I—I want to understand the choices you're saying Congress has. Congress can tax everybody and set up a public health care system.

MR. CARVIN: Yes.

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: That would be okay?

MR. CARVIN: Yes. Tax power is–

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: Okay.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had previously attempted to trap former Solicitor General Paul Clement into saying the same thing. "It seems to me you're saying the only way that could be done is if the government does it itself; it can't involve the private market, it can't involve the private insurers," Ginsburg said. "There has to be government takeover. We can't have the insurance industry in it. Is that your position?"