Poll: Should Government Make You Buy Health Insurance?

It’s an epic fight that could historically change the way health care is approached.

Right now, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments over the constitutionality of the “individual mandate” requiring all Americans to buy health insurance, part of President Obama’s health care bill, signed into law March 23, 2010.

The Supreme Court started hearing arguments on the case on Monday, and the court is expected to make a decision by the end of June, according to the Economist.

Opponents of the mandate say it’s an unprecedented exercise of congressional power—requiring people to buy something--and could be expanded to cars to help the auto industry, or even broccoli.

Obama has argued that the commerce clause in the Constitution allows Congress to regulate health care, and that expanding coverage would lower costs, according to the Economist, which summarizes both the supporting and opposing arguments to the issues being debated at the high court this week. 

On Tuesday, the court’s conservative justices expressed reservations about the heath insurance mandate.

Justice Anthony Kennedy said the law "changes the relationship of the federal government to the individual in a very fundamental way,” according to USA Today.

In Maryland, about 750,000 people were uninsured between 2009 and 2010, according to Linda Bartnyska, chief of cost and quality analysis at the Maryland Health Care Commission.

Weigh in below or in our poll: Should Congress be able to require people to purchase health insurance?