The historic and far reaching US supreme court decision supporting President Obama's health care reforms "largely unscathed" by the court decision is a significant victory for US public health professionals. There will be innumerable analyses of the decision, but a relatively concise and well written one is found in the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-to-rule-thursday-on-health-care-law/2012/06/28/gJQAarRm8V_story.html .
Hidden in the final decision is that the 9 judges were split predominately on ideological lines, with four dissenting conservatives issuing a scathing minority report that questions numerous points of legality. Four liberal judges backing the formal court final decision. And a moderate single voice predominately leaning in favour of the decision. Such a fine line between passing and falling, based not so much on legalities but on ideology of the courts members.
And while a major political victory for Obama during an election year, the comment of his rival Romney was that the first thing he would do if elected would be to repel the reforms. The debate is not over, and may in essence come down to the single and solitary issue on which the November US election is run. Regrettably, the often dominate libertarian lifestyle may surpass the collective utilitarian good. Stay tuned.
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