Obama Pushes Ahead With Health Care

A judge’s ruling on Monday that the individual mandate in health-care reform is unconstitutional hasn’t thrown the legislation off course yet: “Implementation of the act will proceed,” a White House official said Monday. “The ruling will not materially impede our work.” Health insurers are complying, though one representative says, “There is no alternative [to the mandate].” The New Republic’s Jon Chait says, “The real loser here is the health-insurance lobby. Health insurers would have preferred to avoid any health-care reform at all. But the health-insurance lobby's second-highest priority would be a working system with an individual mandate.”