Obamacare has reached the Supreme Court this week, where the 9 justices will spend an unprecedented amount of time debating the constitutionality of the individual mandate included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The court has set aside more than three times the amount it normally does for oral arguments on the individual mandate.
This is, as Vice President Joe Biden would say, “A big f****** deal.”
The individual mandate of Obamacare is the part of the bill that forces Americans to purchase a product (health insurance), whether they want to or not. This is not a debate on whether or not having health insurance is a good thing, it’s a debate on the power Congress holds under the Commerce Clause. Does Congress have the constitutional authority to tax people for the very act of breathing?
The individual mandate is a tax. It demands that people spend their money on a product, for the common good of the public. If that’s not a tax, I don’t know what is. The Constitution gives the power to Congress to tax individuals and businesses, to pay for our increasingly expensive government. We pay income taxes, property taxes, consumptive (sales) taxes, corporate taxes, payroll taxes, capital gains taxes, and inheritance taxes. Where does it end?
If the Supreme Court knocks down the individual mandate, Obamacare will not be able to fund itself. The health care law bars insurance companies from denying coverage to anyone due to pre-existing conditions, age, or overall health in general. It also sets limits on how much physicians may charge their patients, regardless of the cost of the procedure. The idea behind the mandate was that it would pay for the extra expenses incurred by health providers. Without the mandate, the whole law basically collapses.
(Although, one could argue that the whole thing will collapse anyway, as the true costs of Obamacare are beginning to come to light.)
On the other hand, if the court decides to leave the mandate in place, the battle isn’t over. 2014 will be the first year that people will have to pay their health insurance tax, which means that they can file suit against it in 2015, when they file their 2014 taxes.
It’s going to be interesting to watch, and I hope this is the beginning of the end for Obamacare. It was not fun receiving a letter from my health insurance company explaining that my premiums were skyrocketing ‘due to new health care regulations.’ When a few are required to provide for many, how long before they throw in the towel?
Like Margaret Thatcher said, “Eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
Image via TexasGOPVote.com/Flickr
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Comments 12
What happened to the republicans of the 80's and 90's who were always touting that everyone needs to pay thier own share and buy thier own healthcare so that the government (and in turn, the people) doesn't have to pay for it when uninsured people need to see a doctor...???? That is what the individual mandate DOES. The "tax" Jenny is talking about applies to only those who don't follow the law... To those who DON'T acquire health insurance.
It's amazing how they just FORGET things to play politics..
So Miss High-N-Mighty, I would suggest YOU start talking about something you know about. I would suggest YOU look into the faces of 5 or 15 or 150 people whose paychecks you are responsible for writing and YOU tell them how sorry you are that because of Obamacare YOU can't continue providing health insurance AND continue paying all their salaries.
You want someone to go after, Princess? Try going after the trial lawyers lobby that got healthcare over a barrel in the first place.
The changes that have been proposed with Obamacare require people to purchase health insurance or to pay a penalty if they do not do so. I grew up poor, and such a thing when I was a kid would have made things even worse for my family.
In addition, many insurers are looking at reducing their coverage because Obamacare forces providers to limit the amount that they can charge for services under that law, so why should insurers pay any more than that? In turn, providers are looking at exit strategies.
Obamacare does not benefit anyone.
Nancy Pelosi said that we had to pass the law in order to
This "princess" here is saying that if one looks at Obama’s basic policy agenda with reasonable (rather than ideological, or crazy) eyes, it is extremely difficult to use terms like “socialist” (let alone “Marxist”) with a straight face. And I really believe these policies are more center (if not, in some case, center-right) than left-liberal (let alone socialistic). And honestly, if there is a group of persons who ought to be upset about Obama’s basic policy agenda, it ought to be progressives, not conservatives.
Because his policies were born in the era where there were MODERATE republicans (wow...haven't seen one of those in a while.)
Heres a great article for you
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-shocking-truth-about-the-birthplace-of-obamas-policies/2011/04/15/AF6qINpE_blog.html
You know what's funny, is that the individual healthcare MANDATE was actually a Republican idea.
In the late 80s, conservative economists were searching for ways to counter liberal calls for government-sponsored universal health coverage. The solution? A system of tax credits to ensure all Americans could purchase at least bare-bones “catastrophic” coverage. Then they proposed a mandate requiring everyone to obtain this minimum coverage, thus guarding against “free-riders”: people who refuse to buy insurance and then, in a crisis, receive care whose costs are absorbed by hospitals, the government and other consumers.