Obamacare Is Unconstitutional?
Whilst Havakasha has a ball bashing Sarah Palin, I'd be interested in hearing Atypical's opinion on the constitutionality of "Obamacare". While the intention of providing healthcare to all is noble, what seems clear to me is that the Federal Government is setting a new precident for their power. I would think there would be some concern - not only are they increasing their power over everyone, but what is next? When there is power, there is abuse of power, correct? Here are a couple interesting links.
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11003
http://www.examiner.com/civil-rights...nstitutional-1
21 States so far have joined to challange the constitutionality of the legislation. 4 more and we have half the nation. Something doesn't seem right.
GOP Freaks Out Over Health Care's Economic Impact, Private Insurers Remain Calm
The consequences of the flip to Republican governorships during the midterms is starting to rear its head. As of yesterday, the GOP governors of 25 states vowed to join the Florida lawsuit against the Obama Administration seeking to block the healthcare bill. Some of their argument lies in the false notion that administering an expanded Medicare program will break the backs of the states... even though private insurers are developing contracts with individual states to do the dirty work.
The Republican's distortion of the truth about the Affordable Care Act continues, but their theories just keep being deunked. For instance: after the ridiculous scare tactics that giving “grandma” more medical benefits will somehow magically kill her, one of the big Republican arguments against the healthcare bill it was that it would erase 1.6 million jobs and dust the budget. The Congressional Budget Office has reported those fears are simply untrue -- the workforce could diminish by 0.5% because people have the means to retire earlier, not because jobs are lost -- but still, the GOP continues to spread lies about the healthcare bill's potential impact. Daily Finance reports that an independent analysis by FactCheck dispels the notion that "The House Republican leadership. . . badly misrepresents what the Congressional Budget Office has said about the law. In fact, CBO is among those saying the effect 'will probably be small.'"
A new report on Politico underscores that point. Investors and existing private health care companies are much more relaxed than hysterical lawmakers looking to distort the bill, with several insurers saying the regulations have helped increase stability. Even huge companies like Aetna are seeing the benefits in keeping the bill intact:
Health insurers spent barely anytime discussing Republicans’ repeal efforts. Aetna’s Zubretsky touched on the subject briefly only to say that Republicans understand that a rifle shot approach to tearing out specific health reform provisions, particularly the individual mandate, would not bode well for their business.
“The unintended consequence of repealing and replacing part of the legislation is the biggest risk here,” he said. “If guaranteed issue stays but the enforceable mandate disappears, you need another mechanism to make the costs in the risk pool work.”
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This is not the last word on this subject - just a point. But a point that shows that repukes are lying again for political gain. As I have stated before the companies wrote most of this legislation and agreed to the rest. The 'mandate' pays them well for their acquiescence.
See this link for other links to more relevant information.
http://act.alternet.org/go/3268?akid...18.0ZoCXa&t=10
Read This Book To Learn From The One That Helped Con Everyone
From Deadly Spin by Wendell Potter; subtitled, An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out On How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care And Deceiving Americans.
Page 2
For example, if you are among those who believe that the United States has “the best health care system in the world” despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, it’s because my fellow spinmeisters and I succeeded brilliantly at what we were paid very well to do with your premium dollars. In fact, the United States ranks 47th in life expectancy at birth, behind Bosnia, and 54th behind Bangladesh in “fairness”, a measure of the extent to which the best care is available equally throughout a country.
And if you were persuaded that the health care reform bill President Barack Obama signed into law in March 2010 was “a government takeover of the health care system”, my former colleagues and I earned every penny of our handsome salaries. Not to mention our bonuses.
Page 7
But in many other significant ways, the industry’s spin worked as intended. The new law does not include the public option the president once said was essential “to keep insurance companies honest” – and it does include a provision that candidate Obama was adamantly opposed to: a mandate that all Americans not eligible for an existing public program buy coverage from a private insurer. Candidate Obama said during the campaign that he did not think people should be forced to buy insurance they could not afford. The insurance industry and many members of Congress persuaded President Obama to change his mind. As a result, insurers will get billions of dollars in new revenues from people required by law to buy their products and billions more from the government to subsidize premiums for people who can’t afford them. Because of the way the legislation came together on Capitol Hill, the complex bill that reached the president’s desk would not really work without the so-called individual mandate.