On Friday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the “individual mandate” portion of last year’s health care reform law was unconstitutional. Republicans, of course, praised the ruling.

However, the ruling did not strike down the law in its entirety, as did an earlier ruling by Judge Stanley Vinson. Instead, the 11th Circuit Court opinion states that the rest of the law can stand, even if the individual mandate is unconstitutional. How does this make any sense?

The ONLY way that the law might even pay for itself is to expand the pool of insured, which is effectively what the individual mandate clause did. However, what happens when the pool is not expanded, but the tax increases and other stipulations remain in place?

The American taxpayers get screwed.

Now, you’ll not only be paying taxes to support a government run insurance product, but other private insurers will most likely still be forced out of the market, as they are not heavily subsidized by the American taxpayer.  How does a private business compete against the American government?  It can’t – if the government’s system goes into the red, they can just give it more taxpayer dollars to cover the loss.  A private business must make a profit.  Lacking that, they go belly-up.  So, what will the result be?

A single-payer system.  Either you get the government’s insurance, or you’ll get none at all.

Still sound like a Republican victory?