Washington, DC -- The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, including the individual mandate requiring Americans to obtain health insurance beginning in 2014. In a 5-4 decision unveiled Thursday morning, Chief Justice John Roberts joined the four left-leaning justices on the bench in crafting the majority decision.

The Independent Institute is proud to have provided critical information to the Court in support of the law’s challengers, citing the infallible research from our compelling new book, Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis by Dr. John C. Goodman, renowned “Father of Health Savings Accounts” and leading expert on free-market healthcare solutions.

Dr. Goodman asserts that the “individual mandate will force us to buy at costs rising faster than our incomes and will eventually crowd out every other option, causing a complete restructuring and decline of the American economy and society.”

Now, Dr. Goodman responds to this landmark decision - a redefinition of American freedoms.

As a candidate, Barack Obama opposed the individual mandate but supported universal coverage. Unfortunately, he abandoned both ideas.

Congress can repeal the ACA and replace it with universal health care coverage without any mandates. How can we do this?� Offer every American a refundable tax credit that is the same amount regardless of where the insurance is purchased: in the workplace, in a health exchange or in the marketplace.

Many are concerned that if there is no mandate, people will wait until they get sick to buy insurance. The more important question is: Did we ever need the mandate at all? The answer is ‘no,’ not if we do it the right way.

In Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, John C. Goodman thoroughly analyzes the Affordable Care Act and demands that patients and their providers, not policy-makers, be empowered by freer markets to chart their own healthcare map.

John C. Goodman is Research Fellow at the Independent Institute, author of Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, and President of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

To schedule an interview with Dr. Goodman, please contact Lindsay M. Boyd at (202) 725-7722 or [email protected].