Contributed by Liz Sigety

As most of you probably know by now, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of President Obama’s signature health care law, including the individual mandate that requires all to have health insurance. Five members of the Court upheld the individual mandate as a form of tax that Congress can impose using its general taxing power as a type of penalty that someone must pay for their refusal to buy insurance.  The full opinions authored by the Members of the Court can be found at this link.

Furthermore, Reuters via Yahoo! Finance reports that because the mandate survives, the Court did not need to decide what other parts of the statute were constitutional, except for a provision that required states to comply with new eligibility requirements for Medicaid or risk losing their funding. On that question, a majority of the Court held that the provision is constitutional as long as states would only lose new funds if they did not comply with the new requirements, rather than all of their Medicaid funding.

Whether our blog readers agree or disagree—and we recognize that the small business community, like the nation generally, is split on this issue—we think it is important for people associated with the franchise industry to know that the International Franchise Association has taken a position on this ruling and has issued a release expressing its disappointment of the Supreme Court’s action.  The release states "We are deeply disappointed by the High Court ruling to uphold the Affordable Care Act, which places undue burdens on the franchise small business community. While it may have been ruled constitutional, the law is unworkable, unaffordable and wrong for our country’s small business owners who continue to struggle in a still sluggish economic climate. By upholding the law, 3.2 million jobs at franchise businesses continue to be put at risk due to the employer mandate provision, thereby discouraging and disincentivizing the creation of new jobs and business expansion." More information on the IFA’s position can be found at its website.