In Colonial America there were no municipal fire departments. Individual homeowners bought private insurance from private fire companies, which issued a brass plaque, called a “fire mark”, to put on the side of your house. Each of these plaques was unique to the fire company. When there was a fire, several private fire companies might respond, but only the one to which you had paid the premium would fight the fire. If you didn’t have private insurance, you would fight the fire with a bucket brigade of volunteers. Many homes burned to the ground because some of the able bodied men, who answered the call, would not pitch in to fight the fire.

This was clearly not tenable, so early on our political leaders decided to create municipal fire companies, to save lives and homes. This was clearly an important innovation for society, especially considering the fact that homes were often lighted and heated by open flames in those days. This was not socialism. This was common sense. Fortunately for all of us, “fire marks” are now simply interesting relics in antique shops, and most Americans don’t even know their history.

Everyone in government, Democrat or Republican, knows that our healthcare system is broken and the most expensive in the world. Today, if you are in an automobile accident, the ambulance will pick you up and take you to an emergency room, where professionals will save your life regardless of whether you have health insurance . The same is true of heart attacks, strokes, and any number of other healthcare problems. In this way, we are taking care of uninsured Americans in the most expensive and inefficient possible way. This is like fire fighting in Colonial America, except that whether you bought the insurance or not, you get the best professional service money can buy in your community. Did you think it is a free system for the uninsured? That would be wrong. What it means is that the rest of us pay for the care of the uninsured through our health insurance premiums and taxes.

The individual mandate is essential to repair this problem, in the same sense that we are all required to pay for national defense, the fire department and the police department through our taxes. Fortunately, the nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court know this, and would be foolish to throw out the Affordable Care Act, which is the culmination of a century long fight over this issue. They must know that if they do rule it unconstitutional, the fundamental problem with the status quo will likely not be fixed for another generation because of partisan polarization, leaving common sense aside.

Democrats have done a miserable job of explaining why the Affordable Care Act is essential to solve our fundamental societal problem. It is not that we don’t care about the uninsured. All Americans get seen at the emergency room come what may. No one asks your party affiliation when you’re on the gurney in the emergency room, or making your follow-up visits for the surgeries you had to repair your broken limbs. The problem is that we are all paying for these services for the uninsured in the most expensive possible way. This must stop, which is why the individual mandate makes sense for all Americans. It is also why the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will rule in favor of the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans have given the Affordable Care Act a bad name by labeling it “Obamacare” and convincing many sensible Americans that this is a mistake. They claim to want to bring down the cost of healthcare, but what they are doing is trying to perpetuate our current expensive and inefficient system of healthcare. Their reasons are clearly partisan. But even the front-runner for the Republican nomination for President recognized these issues when he implemented “Romneycare” in the State of Massachusetts. The conservative Heritage Foundation originally espoused the principles of the Affordable Care Act. To deny it now is simply Republican hypocrisy of the first order.

Skip Conover is an international businessman, author and artist. He is a Founder of this organization. You can follow him and his work on Twitter using @skip_conover.