This week, the latest challenge to Obamacare, and its individual mandate to purchase health insurance, was heard before the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. Similar appeals cases are due to be heard next month in Cincinnati and Atlanta. Already two federal judges have declared the mandate unconstitutional and beyond the powers of Congress to enact. Regardless of how these courts and the Supreme Court rule (when it eventually makes it to the highest court) on these arguments, it’s time to get rid of the unworkable, unenforceable, and unsustainable mandate.

The individual mandate has been presented as a necessary means to more popular ends – universal coverage, better access to care for those with pre-existing health conditions, and lower health care costs for those already insured. However, the real evidence of the connection between the mandate and the problems it purportedly could solve is shaky at best. Nevertheless, the Obama administration and its congressional allies hoped that an individual mandate could accomplish two political goals: First, it might obscure the full cost of expanded coverage by conscripting private resources to pay for most of it without explicit tax increases; second, it would ensure enough new captive customers for private insurers to provide them with sustainable revenue and keep their risk pools from falling apart, despite expanded regulatory requirements and benefits mandates.