Single-Payer Advocates File Brief With SCOTUS Arguing Against Individual Mandate.

CQ  (2/15, Subscription Publication) reports, "Opponents of the health care law gained some allies when doctors who advocate a single-payer health care system announced Tuesday that they have filed a brief with the US Supreme Court arguing that Americans shouldn't be required to get insurance." According to CQ, "two nonprofit groups, Single Payer Action and It's Our Economy, and the doctors say they believe the United States should have a national, publicly financed system of health care, in which one entity handles billing and administrative functions for consumers."

        Groups File Amicus Brief In Healthcare Reform Case. The Daily Caller  (2/15) reports, "Four free market advocacy groups filed a 39-page amicus brief to the Supreme Court this week supporting the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that the individual mandate in President Obama's health care reform law is unconstitutional." The brief was filed by the Pacific Research Institute, Benjamin Rush Society, Docs 4 Patient Care and the Galen Institute.

        Haslam Says Federal Health Reform Law Is Unconstitutional. The Nashville Business Journal  (2/15, Reisinger, Subscription Publication) reports, "Gov. Bill Haslam is weighing in on the national debate over federal health care reform, providing a window into his thinking as Tennessee wrestles with how to deal with its impact on local markets." Haslam, a Republican "announced...that he was supportive of a brief the Republican Governor Public Policy Committee has filed with the US Supreme Court, arguing that President Obama's health care law is unconstitutional."

        Individual Mandate's Conservative Roots Noted. Michael Cooper, in the New York Times  (2/15, Subscription Publication), says, "The provision in President Obama's health care law requiring all Americans to buy health insurance has its roots in conservative thinking. ... The individual mandate...was seen then as a conservative alternative to some of the health care approaches favored by liberals -- like creating a national health service or requiring employers to provide health coverage."