If premiums go up, so does the cost to taxpayers of insuring each individual. That’s why overturning the mandate might not mean the law spends less money: Even though we’re insuring fewer people, each one is costing us much more. Moreover, the people we’re insuring are, on average, quite a bit sicker, as healthier folks are hanging back from the market. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that “the cost per newly insured person under health reform without the mandate is 93.3 percent higher than under health reform with the mandate.”