Thread: Health care mandate ........DEAD , for now

Just ruled , links to come

The provision to mandate you buy health care has been struck down as
unconstitutional

Next stop
Supreme court

PENSACOLA, FL -- A federal judge ruled Monday that the Obama administration's health care overhaul is unconstitutional, siding with 26 states that sued to block it.

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson accepted without trial the states' argument that the new law violates people's rights by forcing them to buy health insurance by 2014 or face penalties.

Attorneys for the administration had argued that the states did not have standing to challenge the law and that the case should be dismissed.

The next stop is likely the U.S. Supreme Court. Two other federal judges have upheld the insurance requirement, but a federal judge in Virginia also ruled the insurance provision violates the Constitution.

In his ruling, Vinson went further than the Virginia judge and declared the entire health care law unconstitutional.

"This is obviously a very difficult task. Regardless of how laudable its attempts may have been to accomplish these goals in passing the Act, Congress must operate within the bounds established by the Constitution," Vinson wrote in his 78-page ruling.

At issue was whether the government is reaching beyond its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce by requiring citizens to purchase health insurance or face tax penalties.

Attorneys for President Barack Obama's administration had argued that the health care system was part of the interstate commerce system. They said the government can levy a tax penalty on Americans who decide not to purchase health insurance because all Americans are consumers of medical care.

But attorneys for the states said the administration was essentially coercing the states into participating in the overhaul by holding billions of Medicaid dollars hostage. The states also said the federal government is violating the Constitution by forcing a mandate on the states without providing money to pay for it.

Florida's former Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum filed the lawsuit just minutes after Obama signed the 10-year, $938 billion health care bill into law in March. He chose a court in Pensacola, one of Florida's most conservative cities. The nation's most influential small business lobby, the National Federation of Independent Business, also joined.

Other states that joined the suit are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?secti ... le-7930778

this will teach some of us who decided to vote for radicalism. Will those think twice next time?

Good Riddance to garbage legislation. Now to start from scratch with the first thing being,

TORT REFORM

To hell with trial lawyers looking for the big paychecks.

"Attorneys for President Barack Obama's administration had argued that the health care system was part of the interstate commerce system"


hmmm , and yet not all insurance companies can sell plans in all states......

I'm glad it was struck down. The entire healthcare bill was struck down in Florida today as the judge stated the insurance mandate is so intertwined that it is impossible to break out without destroying the bill leaving him no choice but to strike it down.

Now myself for one I can *understand* the idea of requiring health insurance on everyone especially in a really screwed up healthcare system. Hospitals that are *Private* mind you required to provide medical care under the guise of ER care to anyone who walks through the door. However many don't have insurance and don't pay which has ballooned costs of healthcare and insurance to make up the difference for those indivuduals that don't pay. Add in a government payer system (medicare and medicaid) in a *Private* industry and costs further skyrocket to increase the wallet size of the hospitals and doctors. Add in the legal tort that when something goes wrong a person sues for massive amounts of money. Hey medicine isn't perfect yet and is still risky as well. Its about weighing risks vs benefits and sometimes they bite back.

However the question isn't do *I* or *we* like the idea of requiring everyone to have health insurance. Its about it being Constitutional. Its fairly easy to see its UnConstitutional and as a society built on the Constitution and its rule that has to be our first thought.

The greater implications however of it being shot down in the SC if that is the ruling is the same ruling could be used to take on Medicare and Medicaid, or at least Medicaid. If the Admin wants to leave that risk out of later taking on Medicaid they should quickly appeal the healthcare law and then squash the suits while joining with Reps to make a new healthcare bill. Of course the liberals never think they can lose and will likely give us the ammunition to go after reforming medicaid and possibly medicare for heavy reforms.