Don Brunell

The 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold the federal health care law doesn’t close the book on health reform. The court ruled that the individual mandate requiring everyone to purchase health insurance is constitutional because the fines for not purchasing insurance are taxes, not penalties.

That may have resolved the legal issue, but it did nothing to make health care more affordable.

How does ordering people to pay for something they can’t afford solve the problem? Despite its name (Affordable Care Act), the federal law focuses almost entirely on getting more people insured. But unless...