The Supreme Court announced Thursday morning that the Affordable Care Act mandate that every American should purchase health insurance is constitutional and should stand.
The court decided that the government is permitted to penalize individuals who refuse to purchase health insurance, according to NBC News. The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government can levy a "tax" on individuals who do not buy into the system, according to NBC News.
The individual health care mandate is the key provision in Obamacare, and some legal experts thought that it could be ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Had it been stripped from the law, many other provisions–such as covering people with pre-existing conditions and not capping insurance coverage–most likely would have been removed, as well.
The decision is a major victory for the Obama administration, which touted the law passed in March 2010 as its signature legislative achievement. However, there are other Americans who decried the law because of concerns about the federal government's role in regulating the health care industry.
The Supreme Court justices listened to oral arguments on the case in late March before issuing their decision at 10 a.m. Thursday. The court voted 5-4 to uphold the law with Chief Justice John Roberts casting the deciding vote and writing the majority opinion.
and read more about the Affordable Care Act and its implications in a companion article.
Ok, let’s do it this way. You & I pay for Health Insurance because we can afford it. Your neighbor the Smiths has Medicare. Mrs. Smith works hard as a house cleaner and Mr. Smith hangs out at Home Depot looking for work. The Smiths have 5 children who are also on Medicare. What Obamacare does is get them off of Medicare and through a state program with the insurance companies, come up with an affordable plan that this family of 7 can get. You & I still pay or premium price because we don’t qualify for Obamacare. Hell, there on a roll now. Let’s reform welfare next. We’ll get all the grocery chains together and come up with Obamafare. That way those who can’t afford a $6.00 steak only has to pay $1.50.
>Under Obamacare, there will be no more free ride. They will not be able to cheat the healthcare system and will be required to pay their share or pay a fine. On the contrary, the free ride just got bigger and faster and will grow at a faster pace than before. Please see "fool's paradise" article posted above and http://mises.org/daily/6099/Government-Medical-Insurance. Left to the Market, there is no free ride (except by voluntary organizations), government healthcare means you are forced to pay for someone else's government defined free ride, which will grow with each administration. Here are descriptions of the free rides which will soon explode in costs (from wikipedia).: "Low income persons and families above the Medicaid level and up to 400% of the federal poverty level will receive federal subsidies..... ...annual and lifetime coverage caps will be banned. Very small businesses will be able to get subsidies if they purchase insurance through an exchange. Co-payments, co-insurance, and deductibles are to be eliminated for select health care insurance benefits considered to be part of an "essential benefits package""
There are no means discovered by man in order to get something for nothing. when anyone understands the application of this, faith in State Intervention adn Socialism disappears (except for those whose jobs depend on the system, which are not a few). 'The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.'
A: The fact that ObamaCare can only exist by legislation means it is government healthcare. There are two methods of state implementation: a. State Socialism like public schools, post office. b. State Intervention: "Intervention is a limited order by a social authority forcing the owners of the means of production and entrepreneurs to employ their means in a different manner than they otherwise would." -Mises Examples: Mandating health care, setting up health insurance exchange, mandatory car insurance, car seats, seat-belts, and smoke alarms etc. State licensing of private schools, teachers, hospitals and doctors etc. "A health insurance exchange is a set of state-regulated and standardized health care plans in the United States, from which individuals may purchase health insurance eligible for federal subsidies." >The article ... implies ... the concept of insurance is flawed. Not exactly. It explains with fire insurance, you pay a fixed premium for a fixed money benefit. "Only in our system of medical insurance does the government or Blue Cross pay, not a fixed sum, but whatever the doctor or hospital chooses to charge." This leads to "increasing deductibles, ... caps on Medicare payments." Which are met with howls from "customers who have come to think of unlimited third-party payments as some sort of divine right," and charges of "socialistic price controls" from hospitals and doctors.
>it's a good plan for providing healthcare to the population of a capitalist country. "Peaceful cooperation, the peaceful achievements of men are effected on the market. Cooperation necessarily means that people are exchanging services and the products of services, goods. The market is precisely the freedom of people to produce, to consume, to determine what has to be produced, in whatever quantity, in whatever quality, and to whomever these products are to go. Such a free system without a market is impossible; such a free system is the market. We have the idea that the institutions of men are either (1) the market, exchange between individuals, or (2) the government, an institution which, in the minds of the many people, is something superior to the market and could exist in the absence of the market. The truth is that the government — that is the recourse to violence, necessarily the recourse to violence — cannot produce anything. Everything that is produced is produced by the activities of individuals and is used on the market in order to receive something in exchange for it. It's important to remember that everything that is done, everything that man has done, everything that society does, is the result of voluntary cooperation and agreements. Social cooperation among men — and this means the market — is what brings about civilization and it is what has brought about all the improvements in human conditions we are enjoying today." -Mises
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdcaLReCG3Y [simplified] "In my opinion the only right cure is no government regulation, subsidation, and what is more shocking to most, no licensure of physicisians. if I say to you, do you favor the kind of monopolistic practices which the medical association has followed over the past 50+ years? the majority of physicians would say, no, I am opposed. If I ask, do you favor the unlicensed practice of medicine? they would say no, I am not in favor. But they cannot believe both. To believe in both is to say two and two are five."
I read your latest comments and I think you are an honest and thoughtful person because you read some of the articles posted and asked fair questions, but I think you are still completely missing the nature of the points being made against Government Healthcare, and are automatically going back to your previously held notions. I don't think discussion here will help clear up issues. Basic Economics is Essential to really understand this issue. I know you may not have been literal on everything in your comments but consider: 1. Faith is antithetical to Markets and economics. 2. The laws of economics are always in effect. No one can evade them or change them. The logical consequences will always follow. 3. The state cannot manage the economy or healthcare or education or McDonalds or Google or GM. It is not possible without ill consequences. 4. Things will not happen like you think they will. They will happen as they must by economic law. 5. There is no substitute for the voluntary market. If you read only one book to help demonstrate this I suggest, "Economics in One Lesson, The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics" http://mises.org/books/economics_in_one_lesson_hazlitt.pdf
“The penalty will be fully phased in by 2016, when it will be $695 for each uninsured adult or 2.5 percent of family income, whichever is greater, up to $12,500”. Ouch, 2.5% of your income. “The law, however, severely limits the ability of the IRS to collect the penalties. There are no civil or criminal penalties for refusing to pay it and the IRS cannot seize bank accounts or dock wages to collect it. No interest accumulates for unpaid penalties.” Umm, they’ll add a new law at some point. “The IRS is expected to spend $881 million on the law from 2012 through 2014, hiring more than 2,700 new workers and upgrading its computer systems. But the IRS has not made public information about its spending plans in the following years, when the bulk of the health care law takes effect.” And who’s paying for this? "The 2012 budget calls for about 1,200 employees for the IRS to implement the (Affordable Care Act), and the vast majority of those employees are needed to build technology infrastructure to support payments like the new tax credits for individuals and small businesses." More tax dollars.
House Ways and Means Committee Republicans issued a report saying the IRS may need as many as 16,500 additional auditors, agents and other employees "to investigate and collect billions in new taxes from Americans." I tend to believe this number to be closer then the 2700 new workers. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Either we insure illegals, or they continue to use ERs. My brother works as an RN in the ER of a hospital in Springfield, Oregon. He notes that those receiving MedicAid continue to use the ER instead of the walk-in clinic or the regular clinic because of convenience and hours. He also notes that although the Oregon medical program requires a $1 co-pay for clinic visits, there is no co-pay for ER visits.
And, no, we are not forced to buy car insurance. Driving is a choice. My sister chooses not to own a car and therefore, doesn't buy insurance. This Obamacare is like buying car insurance for those who don't want to own a car. This doesn't apply to all but it does apply to those of us who want nothing to do with the AMA for health care.
12:35 pm on Saturday, July 7, 2012 “Those who don't get qualified health insurance will be required to pay the penalty - or tax - starting for the 2014 tax year, unless they are exempt because of low income, religious beliefs, or because they are members of American Indian tribes.” I don't fall into any of the above categories. I just don't want to have the AMA doctors' "heath" care. I have found a better way for me and mine. So, I can't get an exception.
“A 26-year-old earning $35,000 would pay $3,325 in premiums - $277 a month - for the same plan, after only a $66 tax credit. (And that patient might be on the hook for another $4,167 in out-of-pocket costs.)” “Private insurers have yet to set the prices for their 2014 plans, because coverage that will comply with the law is still being developed. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that premiums for the bare-bones plan, called "bronze" level, might average between $4,500 and $5,000 per year. Family plans might cost $12,500 per year.” I love this one – “UNDER 26? LEAN ON MOM OR DAD”
So from the looks of these, I assume your insurance rate will not be based on your yearly income. “Most people with incomes up to four times the poverty level - which currently comes out to $44,680 for an individual or $92,200 for a family of four - will qualify for some help paying for private insurance. Aid drops off sharply as income climbs, and younger people get smaller subsidies than older folks whose insurance rates are higher.” I’m still wondering where those money savings rates are. Oh I know, its not for those who pay for everyone else. "Obamascam Health Care".