The Severability Doctrine.

THE Obama administration has made a curious strategic choice in its defense of the constitutionality of the health care reform act. The central issue before the Supreme Court, which will begin hearing oral arguments on Monday, is whether the act's requirement that everyone buy health insurance -- the so-called individual mandate -- exceeds Congress's constitutional power. The act's other provisions regulating health insurance -- like the requirement that health insurance companies take all applicants, regardless of pre-existing illnesses, and the prohibition against charging sicker patients higher rates -- have not been challenged. And yet the administration is arguing that the individual mandate is not ''severable'' from these regulations; if the mandate falls, they must as well, and health insurance companies would once again be free to choose whom to cover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]