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Supreme Court: Affordable Care Act Is Constitutional
This morning the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. The health insurance mandate, also known as "Obamacare" was found to be "permissible under Congress's taxing authority." The full ruling (PDF) is now available, and the court's opinion begins on page 7. Amy Howe from SCOTUSblog summarized the ruling thus:
"The Affordable Care Act, including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional. There were not five votes to uphold it on the ground that Congress could use its power to regulate commerce between the states to require everyone to buy health insurance. However, five Justices agreed that the penalty that someone must pay if he refuses to buy insurance is a kind of tax that Congress can impose using its taxing power. That is all that matters. Because the mandate survives, the Court did not need to decide what other parts of the statute were constitutional, except for a provision that required states to comply with new eligibility requirements for Medicaid or risk losing their funding. On that question, the Court held that the provision is constitutional as long as states would only lose new funds if they didn't comply with the new requirements, rather than all of their funding."
Further coverage is available from CNN, the NY Times, and Fox.
Of course, the mandate is the keystone that pays for the rest of the parts people like.
By forcing predominantly younger, poorer, healthier people to overpay for health plans far beyond what they need, to subsidize plans for older, wealthier, sicker people -- and to provide special "free" benefits to politically powerful special interest groups.
I pay for my health insurance. I choose a high deductible plan.My costs are low.
Now, they will probably triple because I'll have to pay for coverage for things I don't use such as OBGYN.
So, thanks for raising my costs with no benefit to me.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
If you don't do what the government wants, you will find a new "tax" will appear to make you do it.
Yes, especially when the government (AKA "we the people") wants you to stop freeloading on the health insurance system we're paying for.
The government is not "we the people". They're representatives of the people. There's a pretty big difference. Government is not "things we decide to do together". Government is not my church, or my family. And government was supposed to be limited. That, in reality, is what died today: any notion that people have rights beyond the power of the government. Free elections and the rule of law mean squat without liberty. You simply get elections with changing names, but the government's power over simply continues to grow and grow. Good God, we picked up rifles and killed redcoats for less than this. Washington and Jefferson would weep. We've become a nation of lickspittle slaves. Perhaps we deserve our fate.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
You get to pay the tax, it seems. Welcome to the new Corporate States of America.
You don't have to buy health insurance either. You will simply pay 2.5% more in income tax up to an extra $2,085 per year. But nobody is forcing you to purchase health insurance.
What a dishonest dodge. It IS forcing you to buy it if the government will seize your money if you don't.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel