San Francisco--June 28, 2012: The U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 decision with Chief Justice Roberts siding with the liberal wing upholds the individual mandate as a tax - not under the Commerce Clause which grants Congress the power to regulate commerce. This means the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare ) is constitutional. President Obama did not want the individual mandate labeled as a tax because it is a regressive tax on the middle class, which he wanted to avoid.

However, lawmakers must now focus on repealing and replacing this unpopular law with a patient-centered approach that will deliver real reform for the American people by actually lowering costs and improving the quality of medical care. Some 54 percent of the American public would like to see the entire law replaced.

"If not dismantled and replaced, the damage it does to medical innovation, the doctor-patient relationship, medical insurance availability and cost, and treatment for the chronically ill, as well as soaring government deficits and a drag on the economy could be catastrophic, "  says Sally Pipes, president and CEO of Pacific Research Institute. "We will continue to work to replace the Affordable Care Act with market-based reforms that will give all Americans affordable, accessible, quality health care."

Ms. Pipes is a renowned health care policy expert and author of two highly acclaimed books, The Truth About Obamacare (Regnery 2010) and The Pipes Plan: The Top Ten Ways to Dismantle and Replace Obamacare (Regnery 2012). In both books, Ms. Pipes explains what is wrong with the Affordable care Act and provides solutions for replacing the law with a plan that empowers patients and doctors, creates real incentives for cost savings and injects competition into the health care marketplace.

"The unintended consequences are severe when politicians try to shape and manage health care that works for everyone," says Ms. Pipes. "Today, health care accounts for 17.9% of U.S. GDP and it is heading to 20 percent or one-fifth of our economy. In order to reduce costs, market-based reforms are needed, not more government. Medicare and Medicaid, the public insurance programs, are already headed toward bankruptcy. Obamacare represents a mortal threat to the health and wealth of the American people."

"The Court's reliance on the taxing power to uphold a statute originally claimed not to be a tax, voted for by people who said they would not vote for a tax, and that would not have passed as a tax, is an unfortunate subversion of the political process and the checks and balances that make it politically more difficult to pass a tax than a mandate," says Erik S. Jaffe, a Washington, D.C. appellate attorney and PRI Distinguished Senior Fellow in legal studies.

The case for Obamacare's repeal and replacement is more than evident.