Health care ruling may resonate in November by MSW. MGB: The tax associated with the mandate is miniscule. Few will pay it and it won't impact the finances of the program. Indeed, its inadequacy may well lead to the collapse of that part of reform which includes buying insurance, while the part ruled uncontitutional may be the end of state funding of Medicaid and total federalization - which health and tax policy analysts have been talking about for a while. In the interim, the stock markets will decide whether reform stands as it is. If the investor class is more risk averse than the uninsured, expect health insurers to accept a tax subsidized public option for anyone who can't get private insurance.
More interesting for the purposes of electoral politics is the claim that reform is being financed by taxes on the middle class. In truth, it is financed by excise taxes on device makers and others who profit from the new legislation, and by increased taxes on non-wage income over $200,000 a year for individuals and $250,000 a year for joint filers. The fact that Romney and the GOP consider this strata, which is the upper 2% of households, as being midddle class is, or should be, the big story on this issue.
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