ne of the first columns I wrote was that health care is a human right.

As we await the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), let me familiarize you with the proceedings so far and reiterate my support of our right to health care.

The meat of the issue revolves around the Interstate Commerce Clause (ICC), the Necessary and Proper Clause, as well as the Tenth Amendment and its relation to the ACA’s individual mandate for individuals to maintain health insurance coverage.

To summarize the conservative view of the ICC, I sought the expertise of Artemus Ward, political science professor.

“The Court has previously upheld ICC regulation in markets were individuals have made a choice to participate in the economic activity; however, under the ACA individuals who choose not to take part in health insurance or health care are forced to do so,” Ward said.

The conservative view of ACA’s relation to the ICC falls apart once you consider that 99 percent of Americans incur cost to the health care system before they are born, which also makes it a natural right.

The view of health care as a right is echoed every day in emergency rooms where people are not turned away because of nonpayment. In fact, that is the distinguishing factor between health care and other markets.

For example, if you went to a car dealer and said you needed a car but lacked money, the car dealer would throw you off the lot.

If the conservative’s view of health care is analogous to the car dealer, that individuals who cannot afford health insurance are left untreated, then please inform me of the next flight to Canada.

Furthermore, if the government must assure that 100 percent of individuals enter a market before it can be regulated, then that is the slippery slope upon which the history of jurisprudence must be reexamined.

What the ACA can be related to is education. Although 100 percent of individuals do not enter the educational system, 100 percent of individuals are taxed for it. They are taxed because the belief that access to education is a natural right not a privilege. To provide cost effective education accessible to the public the government regulates and dispenses education.

The difference between a tax for education and a mandate for health insurance is that the government is choosing a nongovernmental distribution mechanism. And I do not see why conservatives would be adverse to the government choosing marketplace regulation over a plan like Medicaid part E.

Ward’s prediction for the final ruling is 6-3 in favor of the ACA’s constitutionality with Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito in dissent.

My prediction is 9-0 in favor of the ACA. For any Justice striking down the ACA will show that he or she is too far removed from our society to make judgments about our deepest values.