The Health Care Law

The SCOTUS has begun hearing oral arguments on the Obama Health Care Law.

There are two primary issues. The first issue is whether congress had the right to expand Medicaid, a joint Federal and State venture, and then condition Federal funding based upon state participation? States challenging the law say this is a form of coercion.

The second issue, and perhaps the more critical one or at least the one that has people jumping up and down, is whether the Federal government has the right to mandate that everyone buy health insurance?

The first issue is a big problem for states already strapped for cash and facing growing budget deficits.

The second issue raises the question if the Federal government can force you to buy health insurance, what else can it force you to buy? Savings bonds? A GM or Ford car rather than a Toyota?

The reason for the mandate to buy insurance is the Free Rider Problem. Given the new regulations about not denying health insurance due to pre-existing conditions, what is to prevent people from not purchasing health insurance until they actually need it? If you don’t have everyone contributing to the system, it becomes unsustainable.

If you remove the individual mandate the whole thing doesn’t work.

This isn’t a great law, but it does address some serious shortfalls in health care and attempts to do so while reining in health care costs. Notice I say “attempts;” the jury is still out on whether it will actually succeed and, to be honest, it’s not looking like it’s going to be all that effective in that regard. If you remove the individual mandate, it’s going to be a disaster.

I’ve found that most people don’t really understand what the Health Care Law is all about. It’s primary focus is to make health care insurance, and thus health care, available to the 30 million or so Americans that don’t have it today. It also reforms some current health insurance practices such as not denying insurance due to pre-existing conditions as previously mentioned, extending coverage for children until a later age and eliminating maximum coverage amounts.

I never believed it wasn’t going to cause a rise in premiums. How can you get more without paying more? Still, I thought overall, although it wasn’t perfect, it was a good start and I still do.

I don’t need it. As a matter of fact I was assuming it would cost me money. But I find it amazing the number of people who are violently opposed to it despite most of them not having a clue what it says. I’m amazed by how many people think it’s a health plan that everyone is going to be forced to use. This is the news media again failing in its mandate to inform the electorate.

As for the SCOTUS, I can’t imagine the conservative court majority allowing this law to continue on unscathed. Forget the law and forget the Constitution, politics and political philosophy demand that the finding on both issues will be that congress exceeded its authority and the law is unconstitutional. After that it doesn’t matter about the remaining provisions, without the individual mandate, the thing becomes unsustainable anyway.

So the number of Americans without health insurance will continue to raise, health care in the U.S. except for the well off will continue to degrade, health care costs will continue to rise and the republic will continue its slide into third world mediocrity.

The sad thing is that a lot of the people yelling the loudest against the Health Care Law are among those that will suffer the most when it’s gone.