A generation later, the circumstances of the American people were no better, but, actually worse. The people had gotten used to the mistreatment of the health care industry and it was a chronic struggle to make ends meet while obtaining life saving care, if one was lucky enough not to be dropped.
There was a time in the USA a health insurance policy was considered simply a benefit expected when working a job. It cost minimal or no cost as an employee, had a deductible of $100, a 20% deductible up to the first $1000 and then fully covered after that amount. That is unheard of now. What occurred was the 'idea' of funding the nation with HMOs that would be cheap, excellent care. It was the time of Richard Nixon. The disaster continued and Americans found they could not afford either the insurance or the health care and people died.
They died from abandonment of their providers or lack of health care insurance. The American people lost their security in their ability of obtaining health care because they were stranded by Wall Street. If their policies no longer turned a profit because of ill health, they were no longer a worthy commodity.
The examples of government intervention to temper the disaster spans decades including SCHIP, Medicare and Medicaid.
The examples of government regulation of consumer commodities also spans decades including rubber, gas and butter during WWII. The government has the power to act in protection of the people including regulation of commerce when it becomes adverse to life.
There was a time in the USA a health insurance policy was considered simply a benefit expected when working a job. It cost minimal or no cost as an employee, had a deductible of $100, a 20% deductible up to the first $1000 and then fully covered after that amount. That is unheard of now. What occurred was the 'idea' of funding the nation with HMOs that would be cheap, excellent care. It was the time of Richard Nixon. The disaster continued and Americans found they could not afford either the insurance or the health care and people died.
They died from abandonment of their providers or lack of health care insurance. The American people lost their security in their ability of obtaining health care because they were stranded by Wall Street. If their policies no longer turned a profit because of ill health, they were no longer a worthy commodity.
The examples of government intervention to temper the disaster spans decades including SCHIP, Medicare and Medicaid.
The examples of government regulation of consumer commodities also spans decades including rubber, gas and butter during WWII. The government has the power to act in protection of the people including regulation of commerce when it becomes adverse to life.
In the words of Judge Laurence Silberman, (click title to entry - thank you) a leading conservative who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, the lawsuits challenging the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most Americans have to either carry health insurance or pay slightly more income taxes have no basis “in either the text of the Constitution or Supreme Court precedent.” Nevertheless, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit broke with three other appeals courts to hold the law unconstitutional last August.
The 11th Circuit decision was wrong, and the Supreme Court will reject it. Here are the three reasons why.
- Congress has broad power to regulate the national economy
Nearly 200 years of Supreme Court precedent establish that the Affordable Care Act's insurance coverage provision is constitutional. A provision of the Constitution known as the Commerce Clause gives Congress power to “regulate commerce … among the several states.” And many Supreme Court decisions hold that Congress has broad power to enact laws that substantially affect prices, marketplaces, or other economic transactions—including transactions in the national health care market....
- The minimum coverage provision holds the Affordable Care Act together
The Constitution also gives Congress the power “[t]o make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution” its power to regulate interstate commerce. As Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia explains, this means “where Congress has the authority to enact a regulation of interstate commerce, it possesses every power needed to make that regulation effective.”...
- Congress has broad leeway in how it raises money
Congress also has the authority to “lay and collect taxes” under the Constitution. This power to tax also supports the minimum coverage provision, which works by requiring individuals who do not carry health insurance to pay slightly more income taxes. Taxpayers who refuse insurance must pay more in taxes while those who do carry insurance are exempt from this new tax. For this reason, the law is no different than dozens of longstanding tax exemptions, including the mortgage interest tax deduction, which allows people who take out home mortgages to pay lower taxes than people who do not.
