Federal court guts Obamacare
Posted August 13, 2011
In a ruling that could impact many in Newberry Springs, the federal appeals court
in Atlanta has struck-down the divisive Obamacare's requirement that mandated that most Americans
must purchase government approved health insurance.
In a 2-1 decision, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed with Georgia and 25
other states that Congress had exceeded its powers in mandating health insurance.
The majority of the court wrote that during World War II, "Congress never sought to require the
purchase of wheat nor war bonds, force a higher savings rate or greater consumption of American goods."
The court recognized Congress' authority to regulate the interstate purchase and
sale of insurance but not regulate consumers who have not entered the insurance market. The
court also allowed other portions of the law to stand; so only the mandate portion was stricken.
The ruling conflicts with a federal appeals court ruling issued two months
earlier from a Cincinnati court that stated that Congress does have the authority
to mandate the purchase of insurance under the constitution's commerce clause. Another ruling
from a Richmond, Virginia federal court is due soon.
Under Obamacare, the law guarantees that all Americans can get healthcare insurance.
The Atlanta court stated that the healthcare bill is an "unprecedented" expansion of
constitutional power and questioned the right of Congress to force American consumers to purchase
a product that the majority does not want.
Forcing all Americans to purchase the insurance is a key necessity for the
mandated program to work. The privileged President, families of Congressmen, Muslims on
religious grounds, and a few others are specifically exempted from having to participate
in the government insurance program.
As people under the healthcare bill are guaranteed acceptance, if it is not
mandated, people are expected to wait until they need the insurace to purchase it. This would
greatly inflate premiums to the point of being sky-high to last-minute buyers. About 50
million Americans lack basic healthcare.
Besides a sharp rise in premiums, removal of the mandate portion would also
place billions of dollars of extra responsibility upon the federal treasury as Americans by the
millions are expected to qualify for federal subsidies in 2014 to acquire insurance.
Such a run upon revenues could force cut-backs in other healthcare areas like expansion of
state Medicaid to low-income individuals.
The right to healthcare is not guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.
President Obama is promoting his healthcare plan under the commerce clause (Article 1, Section 8,
Clause 3) which has been loosely defined to greatly expand the powers of the federal government
into many areas.
The conflict in the rulings and the appeals will eventually push the matter
to the U.S. Supreme Court for resolution.
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