Kinda funny... in the late 1980s and early 1990s conservatives called for an end to the free rider problem in health care. They did not, as some have argued, call for an individual mandate, rather they called for a tax benefit for those who had insurance (much like mortgage deductions, child tax credits, etc). The flipside being a penalty for those who did not have insurance. But they did not advocate compelling people to buy it. Conservatives also long fought expansions of Medicaid that forced states to cover more people under the threat of the loss of all funds.
Justice Roberts just turned PPACA into the model of Republican health care reform from 20 years ago...
I'll quote as well from the folks at SCOTUSblog "The rejection of the Commerce Clause and Nec. and Proper Clause should be understood as a major blow to Congress's authority to pass social welfare laws. Using the tax code -- especially in the current political environment -- to promote social welfare is going to be a very chancy proposition."
Consider, the mandate now rests on the size of the tax penalty imposed - good luck ever increasing that tax. In effect, the mandate has been declawed.
