A personal note about the Supreme Court ruling on health care

In 2007 Chief Justice John Roberts had a seizure on the dock of his Maine vacation home. He had a similar seizure years 14 years before. Having a history of seizures almost certainly made Justice Roberts uninsurable in the private market, and he was not then of age for Medicare.

Justice Roberts, of course, had medical insurance through his federal employment at the time of his second seizure, and anyway he likely was wealthy enough to pay for any medical treatment he needed. But one wonders if he thought about the plight of others with uninsurable medical conditions.

The Chief Justice’s opinion in the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act was tricky. He didn’t like the individual mandate but accepted the federal government’s right to levy a tax. Did he look for a way to approve the constitutionality of the ACA because he recognized the overwhelming need to get insurance coverage to more people? Was he, consciously or unconsciously, sympathetic to the aims of the act?

Maybe the justice’s memoirs will someday give us insight, but I know for certain that my personal experiences affect my support for the legislation. I went to dinner last night with my developmentally disabled daughter, whose life was recently saved by Medicaid, or shall I say by incredible doctors who were paid by Medicaid.

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