House Republicans said the decision would prompt them to redouble their efforts to repeal the law
( Poll top left column: Agree or Not Agree )
Note: Looks like a lot of the folks reading tea leaves got this one all wrong. Turns out Chief Justice John Roberts (George W's appointee) was the wild card in the decision, siding with the court's "liberal" justices. Predictions: All the noise aside, Republicans will lose their fight to repeal the law. The private health insurance industry will get a well deserved and long overdue smack down in the marketplace, and, over time, most Americans will come to view the law as good medicine for the country. Don't forget to eat your vegetables.Los Angeles Times By David G. Savage (complete story) – [T]he Affordable Care Act does not impose a true legal mandate on Americans, (Chief Justice Roberts) said. It simply requires those who do not have health insurance by 2014 to pay a tax penalty. And that is constitutional, Roberts said. "The federal government does not have the power to order people to buy health insurance," he wrote in the majority opinion. "The federal government does have the power to impose a tax on those without health insurance," he added. The mandate is expected to raise about $4 billion a year to help pay for healthcare coverage.The Baltimore Sun
Staff and Wire Reports
June 28, 2012 | 11:01 am EDT
Read the complete report
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of President Obama's health care law Thursday, ruling that the government may impose tax penalties on people who do not have health insurance.
The court's long-awaited ruling rejected a broad legal attack on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act brought by Republican state officials and the National Federation of Independent Business.
The legal challenge focused on the law's so-called mandate that all must have insurance by 2014 or pay a tax penalty.
The administration defended this requirement under Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce. The challengers insisted the mandate was unprecedented and unconstitutional because the federal government would be forcing Americans to buy a private product.
The ruling was not a total victory for the Obama administration.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts said the required expansion of Medicaid violates states' rights and may be unconstitutional.
"The states are given no choice in this case. They must either accept a basic change in the nature of Medicaid or risk losing all Medicaid funding," he wrote.
He said the federal government cannot require the states to follow this part of the law.
Initial projections show about 84,000 Marylanders would have gained coverage through Medicaid's expansion in the first year, according to the Governor's Office of Health Reform.
Roberts' opinion was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Justice Anthony Kennedy delivered a dissent for Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
13 comments:
I am shocked and awed. Finally, a win for sanity and humanity.
Next stop: single payer!
If we dont eat cornbread, we can be taxed.
If you think forcing people to buy insurance from private insurers or face additional taxes from the government is a good thing, what planet are you own?
The federal government is not providing the service, why should they receive tax money and still not provide the service?
There are some positive aspects of the bill, but on the whole it is not a positive thing at all. I don't see how imposing higher taxes on the middle class or criminalizing failure to purchase private health insurance is a "good thing" for anyone. Your just getting an additional layer of government in your life that is STILL not providing the service that it is allegedly there for and for which you have to pay taxes to.
Tax the NRA to the hilt for its implicit involvement in jacking up health care costs for all Americans caused by gun violence. You sell it you own it mofo.
Health care, affordable or otherwise, is not a Right, nor is any thing a Right if somebody has to pay for it.
Rights are given to us by our Creator, not sold or doled by corporations or governments.
Perry and Abbott backed off of their "Nullify Now" campaign rhetoric to try the case in SCOTUS which holds no regard for the Law of the Land, and which has no legitimate authority on the matter.
This is a disgraceful mess all the way around. Its an affront to each of us that our government considers health care a Right, but not our 1st, 2nd, 4th or 6th Amendment Rights.
if you think that the government can do it better than private enterprise, just examine the job DSWSC or Hays Trinity does with their job>
President Obama and every other Democrat were adamant that the government imposed penalty for not purchasing health insurance was NOT A TAX. Pres. Obama was already on the record as saying that persons making under $250,000 a year would not see any tax increase in ANY FORM. And at the time you'll recall that the bill which passed was one that originated in the Senate, not the House, so it was VERY IMPORTANT that nothing in the bill be identified as a tax.
Then we have Roberts joining up with Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan to tell us the bill is OK as long as we call it a tax. Oh, and for legal purposes, we'll just assume this originated in the House.
I'd file this under "Washington is broken."
If private health insurance companies robbing raping pillaging and killing Americans in the name of profits is a good job in your definition then so be it. You might wanna add Aqua Texas to your list of for profit champions.
Although mandating that we all continue to have to deal with the rapacious insurance companies, who are little more than giant banks, this health care law is a step forward.
We need to make the big step that will free us all from the boot on our necks of these giant insurance companies (and the drug companies) by instituting a real health care reform law that allows our money to go directly to the doctors and skip the insurance company altogether.
This is single payer and this is the future of health care.
If any of you tea party people really thinks the "free market" cares about you, then you are truly delusional. The free market is far from free and has gotten us into the financial mess we are in today. If you want to know why legislators keep voting to keep insurance companies (drug companies, banks, agribusiness, etc.) in control of our economy, just look at how much money they pay them to do so.
People before profits...and just so you don't get confused, corporations are NOT people.
How is the Affordable Care Act a burden on the middle class, when the vast majority have heath insurance. It is the freeloaders that will be taxed.Giving hospitals billions instead of debt and thus less taxes on all of us and lowering hospital cost. Also no more illegals running to the ER for free treatments.Kick
Currently, the cost of health care for the uninsured, who use Emergency Rooms as their "family doctor" is borne by all of us. I do not see "forcing" them to obtain more personal, less expensive care as an imposition of big government. I see it as necessary to reduce the cost of health care. People are just hysterical and irrational about this issue. Could it be that they are just irrational about this President?
Obama is not an
anti-war,
foreign-born
religious outsider
who gives away
free health care.
You're thinking of Jesus.
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