Argument: Health insurance mandates incentivize behavior, like many other laws

Support

David Orentlicher. “An Individual Mandate to Purchase Health Care Insurance Is Constitutional.” Huffington Post. December 14, 2009: “At one time, the Supreme Court restricted the ability of Congress to use its taxing power to regulate people’s activities. In the early part of the 20th Century, the Court drew a distinction between taxes designed to raise revenue, which were permissible, and taxes designed to regulate behavior, which might not be permissible. But this distinction was jettisoned by 1937, and the taxing power is now recognized as a broad congressional power.”