The Korean Society of Law and Medicine (의료법학)
- Volume 14 Issue 1
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- Pages.275-302
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- 2013
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- 1229-8069(pISSN)
The Constitutionality of Individual Mandate under the U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010
미국 의료개혁법의 의료보험 의무가입 제도에 대한 연방대법원의 합헌결정
- Lee, Won Bok (Harvard Law School)
- 이원복 (하버드 로스쿨)
- Received : 2013.04.30
- Accepted : 2013.06.10
- Published : 2013.06.30
Abstract
The Unites States has been plagued with soaring health care costs and an alarmingly large number of uninsured population. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 ushered in the most sweeping health care reform in the United States since the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 to address these issues. The law's requirement for individuals to purchase health insurance (the so-called "individual mandate"), however, not only caused a political stir but also prompted constitutional challenges. Some questioned whether the federal government, lacking general police power, could require its citizens to buy unwanted insurance based on its enumerated powers under the U.S. Constitution. This paper summarizes the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutionality of individual mandate, and explores how the decision relates to Korea's own universal health care.
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