It should have never been a tax specifically because it's an unconstitutional act. Calling it a tax is the letter vs the spirit of the constitution.
If you and others like yourself want to ensure everyone has health insurance then __make it mandatory for the state to pay for it__. Anything else and you're just taxing the poor for being poor.
That is an interesting opinion, but at this point, both a conservative, and then a super-conservative, packed-with-federalist-society SCOTUS has disagreed with you twice on this issue (5-4) and then (7-2). It's about as written-in-stone as you can get in the United States.
The courts think this is above-board, the executive thinks this is above-board, most of the public thinks its above-board, it's safe to say its above-board.
lets not use that as justification, shall we?
carrying private service X is required for you to exist in the united states. If you don't pay for X, you get fined Y as a punishment.
yep, I'm sure the powers-that-be considering that above-board should be the only justification we need!
It was also perfectly constitutional, hence the need for that 13th amendment.
You're going to need a better complaint than 'it's unconstitutional', as this is pretty verifiably constitutional. The people who have been empowered[1] by the founding fathers to determine what is, and what is not constitutional have determined that this is constitutional. It's not a matter of opinion at this point.
> carrying private service X is required for you to exist in the united states.
And that's nothing new. Government can compel all sorts of things from you. Showing up to contribute your labour to a jury duty. Involuntary servitude in the military. Taxing the land you live on. Every society - even this society - provides you with privileges, and requires obligations from you.
This obligation has been ruled to be well within the legal framework of this society, and if you don't like it, you should look into passing a constitutional amendment on the subject.
[1] Actually, SCOTUS' powers in this sphere are what's unconstitutional, but we all pretend that they are.
the question is whether or not the government can force you to pay for a __PRIVATE__ service just for __EXISTING__ within the borders of the US.
There is __NO PRECEDENT__ for this. The closest you can get are things like car insurance where you're required to carry insurance in order to drive on US roads. You can choose not to drive, you cannot choose to "not exist".
That puts this into an entirely different category. The fact that it originally got rationalized as a tax opens a whole different can of worms. Good luck refusing to pay taxes.
The court case as a whole argued that because the GOP changed the ACA in a manner that made part of it (the $0 fee) illegal, the entirety of the ACA should be made illegal.
The fifth circuit agreed with some of the arguments in the case (the fee one), but did not practically change anything about the ACA.
And then SCOTUS, surprising ~everyone, ruled that actually the whole of the ACA is constitutional.
Look at this timeline, and you tell me - who spent years trying to re-introduce the free rider problem, and to break the ACA? Congress, the president, and the plaintiff states... or the fifth circuit, which ruled that a $0 fee (whatever that is) isn't a tax?
Now, as of 2022, we are in a world where the ACA has been thoroughly litigated, and is still here, with the free rider problem hanging like a millstone over its neck.