patrick.net

"A federal appeals court in Atlanta on Friday struck down a key provision of the Obama administration's health care reform law, ruling that Congress exceeded its authority in mandating that most Americans buy health insurance by 2014 or face a penalty."

And rightfully so.

Finally, the Supreme Court does something right. From the beginning I argued that the individual mandate was Unconstitutional because it is in effect a tax, and tax bills must originate in the House of Representatives, not the House or Lords, er, Senate.

The Court went a step further and said that the provision exceeds the authority of Congress, which is a good thing because the "tax" was a sneaky one that went to private companies rather than a public option.

The individual mandate was the most evil part of the bill. It basically tried to f' every young adult to subsidize older, more expensive users. Given how in debt the Millennials are, this bill would have killed them. It also had the effect of screwing over anybody who changes jobs frequently like software developers and pretty much most of the Millennials in any field.

Finally, the provision was essentially a gift to the corrupt big insurance companies who are 90% of the problem.

The Supreme Court has not heard or ruled on the case Dan.

shrekgrinch says

Cool!

Now lets go fully socialist single payer! C'mon! Let's see who has the balls in Congress to vote for that.

Bernie Sanders and Dennis Kucinich. Sanders actually played a major part in getting single payer health insurance implemented in Vermont a few months ago.

Ah, yes. The article does say an "federal appeals court". Good catch.

It's really amazing how wrong Dan is in every assertion he makes above.

Dan8267 says

From the beginning I argued that the individual mandate was Unconstitutional because it is in effect a tax, and tax bills must originate in the House of Representatives

PPACA is H.R.3590.

Dan8267 says

exceeds the authority of Congress, which is a good thing because the "tax" was a sneaky one that went to private companies rather than a public option

The tax, should it survive Kennedy's veto, will be levied by the IRS and goes to the UST.

Dan8267 says

The individual mandate was the most evil part of the bill. It basically tried to f' every young adult to subsidize older, more expensive users

Actually premiums are rated on age.

Dan8267 says

It also had the effect of screwing over anybody who changes jobs frequently like software developers and pretty much most of the Millennials in any field.

Huh?

Dan8267 says

the provision was essentially a gift to the corrupt big insurance companies who are 90% of the problem.

Actually the insurance cos are bound to deliver health care at 15-20% margins, including profits. This is a start. The real cost centers are the profits of hospitalization services reap -- that's the long pole in the tent between us and the eurosocialists that have half our per-capita costs.

Bellingham Bob says

The individual mandate was the most evil part of the bill. It basically tried to f' every young adult to subsidize older, more expensive users

Actually premiums are rated on age.

That doesn't matter. What matters is how much of a premium is levied on 22-year-olds. If it's more than $1/year, the young adults are being ripped off. That's why all the big health insurance companies jizzed in their pants when the individual mandate was passed. They knew they would reap huge profits off of young, healthy people who had no medical needs.

Here's a picture of one of those health insurance company CEOs.

Bellingham Bob says

It also had the effect of screwing over anybody who changes jobs frequently like software developers and pretty much most of the Millennials in any field.

Huh?

Most Millennials change jobs frequently, as do people in certain fields. It is not uncommon to be employed 99% of the year, but have an average length of employment of three to twelve months. This is becoming common today.

Since health insurance is almost always married to your employment, this means that people who switch jobs frequently (the new norm) are constantly losing their health insurance.

Penalizing them for this is about the most socially unjust thing a health insurance law could do.

The solution is simply to mandate single payer and a public option and mandate that employers give employees the option to choose the public plan.

Bellingham Bob says

It's really amazing how wrong Dan is in every assertion he makes above.

Dan8267 says

From the beginning I argued that the individual mandate was Unconstitutional because it is in effect a tax, and tax bills must originate in the House of Representatives

PPACA is H.R.3590.

"The "individual mandate," they wrote, "exceeds Congress's enumerated commerce power."

RTFA

Also, learn the difference between the words assertion and conclusion. You may disagree with my conclusions, but that does not make them assertions.

Bellingham Bob says

the provision was essentially a gift to the corrupt big insurance companies who are 90% of the problem.

Actually the insurance cos are bound to deliver health care at 15-20% margins,

The problem isn't just the immediate costs. The problem includes things like big insurance companies lobbying against the interests of everyone else in society. There are social costs that cannot be measured in dollars.