The Affordable Care Act — health care reform or “Obamacare” — became law in March 2010, although many of its provisions won’t go into effect 2014. Since its passage, opponents of the law have vowed to repeal or undo it, somehow, before full implementation kicks in. One way to do that is to have the law declared unconstitutional by courts. Last week, however, a federal appellate court ruled that the law is constitutional.
What happens to the health care act will have an impact on the lives of all Americans, directly or indirectly, including those with mesothelioma. When the law goes into effect, insurance companies will no longer be able to turn away applicants with pre-existing conditions. More than 30 million Americans who don’t have health insurance now ought to be able to obtain insurance. The act also contains provisions designed to keep Medicare solvent further into the future.
Yet opposition to the act remains strong. Several state attorneys general and some activist organizations have filed suits challenging the law’s constitutionality. So far, three federal district courts have found the law to be constitutional, and two have found it is not.
These decisions have been appealed, and last week the first appeal was decided. The Sixth Circuit federal court of appeals ruled that the law is constitutional. That won’t end the argument, of course, and everyone expects the issue to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court eventually.
The law’s opponents hang most of their arguments on the “individual mandate” part of the law. Under this provision, beginning in 2014 most Americans will be required to obtain medical insurance. Those who don’t get health care benefits through their jobs will have to purchase insurance on their own.
Several other provisions in the law are designed to make purchasing individual insurance more affordable. Also, more people will be able to qualify for Medicaid and other assistance programs. The penalty for not purchasing insurance is minor. Still, some people are angry that the law will make them buy insurance, whether they choose to or not, and they say Congress doesn’t have the authority under the Constitution to tell people what to buy.
The Affordable Care Act says its power to enact the individual mandate comes from the commerce clause. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes.”
Opponents of the law say the commerce clause doesn’t apply, because the federal government telling people what to buy is not “commerce among the several states.” Further, they argue, penalizing people for not purchasing something amounts to regulating inactivity. Next, they say, the federal government will tell everyone to buy broccoli because it’s good for us.
But the Sixth Circuit court of appeals said that the individual mandate does not exceed congressional authority under the commerce clause. Individual decisions to purchase or not purchase insurance affect the cost of premiums for everyone. Further, when uninsured people do receive medical treatment, usually their treatment is paid by taxpayers or by padding the bills of people who do have insurance. So, individual decisions to not purchase insurance actually has a major impact on the health care market across the nation.
If we are going to require health insurance companies to insure people with pre-existing conditions, something like the individual mandate is necessary. Otherwise, people would simply not buy insurance until they started to get big medical bills, which would drive most insurance companies out of business.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 5th, 2011 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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