which constitutional power of congress was used to establish the individual mandate under obamacare
Health insurance mandate The ACA mandate was challenged in federal courts by Republican state Attorneys General. On June 28, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the provision as Constitutional.[42] Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the majority opinion in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, which upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by a 5-4 vote. The Court ruled that although the "individual mandate" component of the act was not constitutional under the Commerce Clause, it was reasonably construed as a tax and was therefore valid under the Congressional authority to "lay and collect taxes."[43][44]
History of health care reform in the United States One of the earliest health care proposals at the federal level was the 1854 Bill for the Benefit of the Indigent Insane, which would have established asylums for the indigent insane, as well as the blind and deaf, via federal land grants to the states. This bill was proposed by activist Dorothea Dix and passed both houses of Congress, but was vetoed by president Franklin Pierce. Pierce argued that the federal government should not commit itself to social welfare, which he stated was the responsibility of the states.[1][2]