The long, trudging march of the Patient Protection andAffordable Care Act toward the U.S. Supreme Court is nearing theend, of the road, as court after court clash over theconstitutionality of the landmark legislation.

But there one's small problem. While the individual mandateclearly emerges as the point of judicial contention, someone forgotto tell the courts about the rest of the law. Because, while thelaw remains a legal and logistical mess, the PPACA without theindividual mandate is something altogether worse.

Several states – and some of the courts – have argued ratherconvincingly that this particular exercise of the Congressional“commerce clause” (the individual mandate) exceeds any historicinterpretation of this little-known Constitutional provision. Butany underwriter will tell you that compelling carriers to offercoverage to “everyone” without also mandating “everyone” purchasesaid coverage is as mathematically challenged a conceit as No ChildLeft Behind – Bush's landmark education law that forced newstandards and testing on the states without actually paying for anyof it.