Aug 12 2011
US Court Of Appeals Strikes Down Obamacare
Update: Judge that tipped ruling was Clinton appointee. Sweet Justice – end update
Just got word from DJStrata that the 11th Court of Appeals has decided against Obamacare:
An appeals court ruled Friday that President Barack Obama’s healthcare law requiring Americans to buy healthcare insurance or face a penalty was unconstitutional, a blow to the White House.
The Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, found that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring Americans to buy coverage, but also ruled that the rest of the wide-ranging law could remain in effect.
The legality of the so-called individual mandate, a cornerstone of the 2010 healthcare law, is widely expected to be decided by the Supreme Court. The Obama administration has defended the provision as constitutional.
The case stems from a challenge by 26 U.S. states which had argued the individual mandate, set to go into effect in 2014, was unconstitutional because Congress could not force Americans to buy health insurance or face the prospect of a penalty.
Well, it looks like all those crony exemptions to Obamacare were unnecessary after all – since they entire fiasco falls with the individual mandate. And note this is a majority of states challenging DC’s over reach. My bet is if Obama does not get elected in 2012 the nation will be able to dump this liberal albatross and avoid the same health care debacle we see in the UK and Canada. That alone should add a lot of momentum against a 2nd term for Obama, since much of the political backlash we have seen was sparked (if not fueled) by Obamacare.
I’ve got a smile from ear to ear. We the people, yes we can!
It has been a week of enlightenment for the American people! Obama and his cronies can only keep the truth hidden for so long.
I hate to throw water on the party but this is not (defeating the individual mandate) a solution to ending Obamacare.
The ruling also finds that the remainder of the Law can be seperated from the individual mandate. So Obamcare still stands. Actually it opens the door for a stronger argument/need for single payer, to make the remainder of the law work. A simple tweek for a democrat congress and president.
The whole of the law, Obamacare, needs to be erased.
That’s not just me talking , “Hyscience” covers this angle well.
O’neal, I disagree – killing the mandate necessarily kills the entire bill. Not directly, but indirectly – but it kills it dead, unless you think a Republican House would vote for single payer. Somehow, I don’t think that’s very likely.
Allow me to explain:
The mandate was put into the bill because it was necessary to counter the provision which required health companies to provide insurance to *anyone* who applies, especially those with pre-existing conditions. That single provision is the thing that will *guarantee* a fast destruction of the entire industry unless there’s a mandate. This single requirement is more important than any of the other 1971 pages of that bill.
Here’s why: consider why any healthy person buys health insurance. If you’re healthy, you don’t need it today, right? Why pay for something you don’t need? Well, we do it because none of us wants to get caught without insurance and then have a bad diagnosis come in, when it’s too late to buy anything.
Forcing insurers to accept pre-existing conditions changes that entire calculation. Now, if you know that no one can turn you down, the rational course is to drop all insurance and just wait for that first bad diagnosis. Why not? Obamacare says no one can be turned down, no matter what. So what if they charge higher premiums? With the average hospital stay now regularly costing tens of thousands of dollars, the buyer comes out way ahead no matter how high his premiums are – and he can always quit paying as soon as he gets out of the hospital. THAT is why the mandate was put into the law – to prevent that from happening. Without the mandate, only sick people buy insurance while healthy people flee – and that’s a guarantee of almost instantaneous bankruptcy for the entire insurance industry. Which is why they will have to stop ALL new sales the day Obamacare is enacted – if there is no mandate. They will have no choice.
Of course, you may point out that they will be required to sell policies – but not if they a) declare bankruptcy or b) simply choose to leave the insurance business. That’s what they will be forced to do. There is no possible way for any company, no matter how well run, to survive if they are required to take all applicants but the applicants are *not* required to sign up until they get sick.
Many have already pointed out that this mechanism was a pre-text to impose single payer health care, but now that won’t happen with a republican House. So it is now a recipe for the complete collapse of the health care payment system in this country.
Of course you could drop the requirement that insurers accept pre-existing conditions – but then we’re right back to where we were before Obamacare was passed, aren’t we? Except we’ll still have 1900 pages of other expensive rules that cover no one and serve only to waste a huge deal of money.
THIS is why Obamacare now HAS to be repealed – providing that the Supreme Court agrees with the 11th circuit, of course. Repealing it will be the only way to prevent the complete collapse of health care in this country.
I think they will, and have thought so from the day this monstrosity was first passed.
WWS,
Thanks for the analysis. I will have to study this further. I think we are saying the same thing:
Without the individual mandate, and with the no denial of preexisting standing, the healthcare system collapses.
Single payer is the outcome.
Obamacare needs to be removed entirely.
Yes.
OL
WWS,
Thanks for the analysis. I will have to study this further. I think we are saying the same thing:
Without the individual mandate, and with the no denial of preexisting standing, the healthcare system collapses.
Single payer is the outcome.
Obamacare needs to be removed entirely.
Yes.
OL
I was taught that you buy insurance to protect your assets, that includes health insurance because a serious illness can wipe you out. I’m thinking most people buy health insurance because they think it has something to do with good health.
Boehner needs to call the House back from vacation now.
He needs to pass a law denying any and all implementation of ANY of the Obamacare provisions.
This disaster is already causing Insurance Companies to leave the Health Insurance field and driving the costs to small employers through the roof.
Happened to me. The Principal bailed and my employer bought Blue Cross to replace. A price increase of 30%–over $100,000 for 9 employees 3 individual and 6 family plans a much worse plan than we had 5000 dollar deductibles and no co-pays.
This administration will ignore the ruling and continue the implementation as it has on the oil drilling moratorium.
The Repugs need to get their messaging and come back and stop it now. Use the finanacial meltdown as leverage.
“Stop the implementation of an unconstitutional law and help create jobs and recover from the Obama recession act of 2011”
Make the Rats go on record defending this unconstitutional rippoff at the very least. There are 23 Rat Senators up for re-election put them on record in favor or defense of this mess.
Do to them that which the Reugs would not to Obama and his unconstitutional Libyan War.
While they are back pass Cut cap and balance and thus no need for an unconstitutional committee this fall.
Come on Repugs play offense or be gone you have been handed the ball on the 30 yard line drive it in….unless you are no different than the Rats and wish to be voted out.
Kathie, the reason a serious illness can wipe you out is because you can’t buy insurance under the current system if you’ve got a bad pre-existing condition, ie a bad diagnosis. And then you’re stuck for all of the bills. But Obamacare throws that all out the window – the requirment to cover pre-existing conditions is the same as a mandate that property insurance companies be forced to sell you home insurance *after* your house catches fire.
Since your house may never catch fire, why would anyone ever buy insurance if they were allowed to wait until after it happened to know if they would need it? They wouldn’t, of course. Since the very concept of insurance depends on a large number of people paying and a few being paid off, this destroys the fundamental mathematics that allows insurance companies survive. They will end up paying out on every health policy they sell without the chance to build up premiums over time – or at least they will for the few days they survive before they file bankruptcy.
No insurance industry, no health system.
No insurance industry, Government Unionized and Rationed Health System!
My understanding is Obamacare was passed as part of the budget reconcilliation process. The writer stated that anything passed during such a process had to meet certain budget requirements – the Bush 2003 Tax Cuts were passed during such a process which is why they expired last year and had to be renewed. Anyway, according to the author, if the Individual Mandate is removed, the whole bill is invalid because the mandate was a funding mechanism for the rest of the program; the loss of the funding mechanism renders terminates the rest of the bill because the requirements of budget reconcilliation will have been violated (Obamacare could no longer be considered “revenue neutral” even given the numerous games Congress played to make it appear so.) I wish I could find where I read that but I haven’t been able to.