Author: HenchmanPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Constitutional Questions Surrounding the Health Care Law's Individual Mandate
Author: HenchmanIs the Individual Health Insurance Mandate Constitutional?
Author: Jack PainterPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The Supreme Court is about to hear a case of great legal and political importance. At issue is the constitutionality of the so-called “individual mandate” in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which requires most Americans to purchase health insurance starting in 2014 or pay a monetary penalty.The question is whether Congress exceeded its Constitutional power to regulate “Commerce...among the several States” (i.e., regulate interstate commerce) and to make laws “necessary and proper” to carry into effect that power. It's unlikely the Obama Administration can justify the individual mandate as a regulation of interstate commerce. How can the failure to purchase health insurance in itself be considered commerce, let alone interstate commerce? If that is interstate commerce, what can't Congress force us to purchase? For that reason, the outcome of the case will likely turn on whether the individual mandate is both “necessary” and “proper” to carry into effect Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce. To succeed on the “necessary” test, the Obama Administration must make constitutional arguments that don't have any logical limits and therefore give Congress vast powers over our lives, and this undermines its ability to show that the individual mandate also meets the “proper” test, which requires that it be consistent with “the letter and spirit of the constitution.” On its face, the individual mandate fails the "proper" test. It abandons the long-standing legal principle that legally binding contracts require mutual assent and cannot be coerced. This crosses a line the federal government has never crossed and effectively tramples on “The powers...reserved...to the people” under the Tenth Amendment. It is inconsistent with the fundamental concept of self-ownership that underlies the theory of natural rights in the Declaration of Independence - the idea that we own ourselves and, therefore, have the right to be left alone as long as we honor the equal right of others to be left alone. Beyond that, the Administration's expansive view of the commerce power creates a sea of federal power limited only by islands of individual rights (and limits on using the commerce power to regulate non-economic activity), and that is inconsistent with the letter and spirit of the Constitution: It imposes virtually the same limits on federal and state power and, therefore, effectively gives the federal government the same “police powers” as the states. It puts liberty at risk by relying entirely on individual rights to protect us against things like mandated doctor visits and exercise. For example, the Supreme Court has found an unenumerated “right to liberty” only where there is no harm to others. The courts could easily decide that skipping annual physicals or living a sedentary life harms others by raising medical costs for some and insurance premiums for all. The Administration makes the following arguments to allay concerns about the threat to liberty its theories pose, but those arguments don't stand up to scrutiny: The government imposes the equivalent of mandates all the time. Economic mandates are no more intrusive than regulations or prohibitions of chosen activity. Congress can use its taxing power to achieve the same ends, so using the commerce power is permitted. We can rely on the political process to protect our liberty.
Health Care, the Supreme Court and the Constitutionality of the Individual Mandate
Author: Remi AstonPublisher: Nova Science Publishers
ISBN: 9781624171475
Category : Constitutional law
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
As part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), as amended, Congress enacted the "individual mandate", which requires certain individuals to have a minimum level of health insurance. Individuals who fail to do so may be subject to a monetary penalty, administered through the tax code. Prior to ACA, Congress had never required individuals to buy health insurance, and there had been significant debate over whether the individual mandate was within the scope of Congress's legislative powers. This book provides an overview of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care ACT (ACA), the Supreme Court and the constitutionality of the "individual mandate".
The Health Care Case
Author: Nathaniel PersilyPublisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199301077
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
The Supreme Court's decision in the Health Care Case, NFIB v. Sebelius, gripped the nation's attention during the spring of 2012. Like the legislative battle leading to adoption of "Obamacare", the litigation took many unexpected twists and turns, culminating in a surprising, fractured and confusing decision from the Supreme Court. This volume gathers together reactions to the decision from an ideologically diverse selection of the nation's leading scholars of constitutional, administrative, and health law.
The Tough Luck Constitution and the Assault on Healthcare Reform
Author: Andrew KoppelmanPublisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199970025
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 195
Book Description
Looks at Chief Justice John Roberts' upholding of "Obamacare," and shows how his decision was based on libertarian ideals and may not be a victory, but instead a blow, to progressives.
Unprecedented
Author: Josh BlackmanPublisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610393295
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
Foreword by Randy E. Barnett In 2012, the United States Supreme Court became the center of the political world. In a dramatic and unexpected 5-4 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts voted on narrow grounds to save the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Unprecedented tells the inside story of how the challenge to Obamacare raced across all three branches of government, and narrowly avoided a constitutional collision between the Supreme Court and President Obama. On November 13, 2009, a group of Federalist Society lawyers met in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., to devise a legal challenge to the constitutionality of President Obama's "legacy" -- his healthcare reform. It seemed a very long shot, and was dismissed peremptorily by the White House, much of Congress, most legal scholars, and all of the media. Two years later the fight to overturn the Affordable Care Act became a political and legal firestorm. When, finally, the Supreme Court announced its ruling, the judgment was so surprising that two cable news channels misreported it and announced that the Act had been declared unconstitutional. Unprecedented offers unrivaled inside access to how key decisions were made in Washington, based on interviews with over one hundred of the people who lived this journey -- including the academics who began the challenge, the attorneys who litigated the case at all levels, and Obama administration attorneys who successfully defended the law. It reads like a political thriller, provides the definitive account of how the Supreme Court almost struck down President Obama's "unprecedented" law, and explains what this decision means for the future of the Constitution, the limits on federal power, and the Supreme Court.
Obligatory Health
Author: Noa Ben-AsherPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The Supreme Court will soon rule on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed in March 2010. Courts thus far are divided on the question whether Congress had authority under the Commerce Clause to impose the Act's “Individual Mandate” to purchase health insurance. At this moment, the public and legal debate can benefit from a clearer understanding of the underlying rights claims. This Article offers two principal contributions. First, this Article argues that, while the constitutional question technically turns on the interpretation of congressional power under the Commerce Clause, underlying these debates is a tension between liberty and equality. At a time when some scholars are emphasizing the convergence of liberty and equality, the healthcare debates accentuate the friction between these two foundational principles of American jurisprudence. Second, this Article offers a supplement to the rights-based orientation of both liberty and equality claims: the perspective of individual obligation. This Article argues that a society committed to values such as equality may sometimes need to achieve its goals through the recognition of individual obligation. The Act embodies this insight. It is a legislation that simultaneously reflects social commitment to equality and the individual obligation of members of society to help others realize their basic human needs.
The Chief
Author: Joan BiskupicPublisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465093280
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 415
Book Description
An incisive biography of the Supreme Court's enigmatic Chief Justice, taking us inside the momentous legal decisions of his tenure so far. John Roberts was named to the Supreme Court in 2005 claiming he would act as a neutral umpire in deciding cases. His critics argue he has been anything but, pointing to his conservative victories on voting rights and campaign finance. Yet he broke from orthodoxy in his decision to preserve Obamacare. How are we to understand the motives of the most powerful judge in the land? In The Chief, award-winning journalist Joan Biskupic contends that Roberts is torn between two, often divergent, priorities: to carry out a conservative agenda, and to protect the Court's image and his place in history. Biskupic shows how Roberts's dual commitments have fostered distrust among his colleagues, with major consequences for the law. Trenchant and authoritative, The Chief reveals the making of a justice and the drama on this nation's highest court.
The Affordable Care Act
Author: Tamara ThompsonPublisher: Greenhaven Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0737771496
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Book Description
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was designed to increase health insurance quality and affordability, lower the uninsured rate by expanding insurance coverage, and reduce the costs of healthcare overall. Along with sweeping change came sweeping criticisms and issues. This book explores the pros and cons of the Affordable Care Act, and explains who benefits from the ACA. Readers will learn how the economy is affected by the ACA, and the impact of the ACA rollout.
Legal Challenges to Health Reform
Author: T. R. GoldmanPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 3
Book Description
The US Supreme Court has agreed to rule on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. On November 14, 2011, the high court granted review of a decision from the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia, that struck down the constitutionality of the individual mandate, which requires most people to have health insurance coverage or pay a penalty, but held that the rest of the Affordable Care Act could stand. Both the Obama administration and plaintiffs in the case had asked the Supreme Court to review the matter. The high court's decision is expected by the end of June 2012. In addition to reviewing the Eleventh Circuit's decision against the mandate, the Supreme Court will consider three other related matters: whether the individual mandate, if found unconstitutional, can be severed from the remainder of the health care law; whether consideration of the mandate is premature based on a federal law that bars court challenges to any tax until the tax is actually collected; and whether Congress exceeded its constitutional authority and was "coercive" toward the states in expanding Medicaid to enroll many of the nation's uninsured people. This brief provides background on these issues.