The decision on President Barack Obama’s most important domestic policy is in: Requiring people to purchase health insurance is constitutional.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Congress was correct in requiring nearly every American to purchase health insurance before 2014 or else pay a financial penalty with their tax returns.
The decision in National Federation of Independent Business, et al., v. Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, et al., is an enormous and historic step to repair our health care system and provide coverage to the uninsured. Though it is just that: a step.
Five justices agreed that the fee someone must pay if he or she refuses to purchase health insurance is a kind of tax. Since Congress has taxing power, the individual mandate stands. That’s why it doesn’t matter that the justices didn’t uphold the law on the ground that Congress could use its power in this instance to regulate commerce between states.
The court also held that the part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that requires states to impose new eligibility requirements for Medicaid, or risk losing funding, is constitutional — as long as states only potentially lose new funding, not all their funding.
The decision was possible because of the swing vote of conservative Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, so far the law has benefited Mainers by doing the following:
• Allowing parents to keep their children under age 26 on their family coverage. More than 9,000 young Mainers have gained insurance coverage as a result.
• Providing 190,000 Mainers on Medicare with free preventive services, such as mammograms and colonoscopies, in 2011.
• Realigning the spending of health insurance companies, so 80 percent of premium dollars go to providing health care and quality improvements, while 20 percent go to administrative costs. If they don’t, companies must reduce premiums or provide consumers with a rebate. This summer, about 10,600 Mainers are expected to receive rebates.
• Preventing insurance companies from imposing a lifetime dollar limit on health benefits.
• Insuring 41 Mainers in April who were previously uninsured because of a pre-existing condition.
Maine now has to decide how it will run a health insurance exchange, which acts as a marketplace for businesses and consumers to shop for health plans. It may let the federal government run it, partner with the federal government or establish its own. We would like to see the state maintain some control.
Part of setting up the exchange will require the state to determine the requirements for certified insurance plans, which will involve laying out essential health benefits while following established limits on cost-sharing for deductibles, copayments and out-of-pocket maximums.
Maine is one of 26 states that sued to overturn the federal health reform law. But the state will do more good for its people — particularly its poorest — if it accepts the court’s decision. Maine should take advantage of the federal grant dollars available under the act for projects to explore new and streamlined ways to deliver care.
Maine could benefit substantially from the court’s decision, especially when you consider that the state’s health care expenditures represent 19.4 percent of gross domestic product, compared to the nation’s 13.3 percent. A small percentage of the state’s Medicaid population generates a majority of the cost, and providing them with more efficient care will allow the state to cover more people for the same amount of money.
There is still a lot of work to do. The federal government must lay out additional regulations to define how states should implement programs, and Maine must set up its exchange. We’ll wait to see whether the court’s ruling produces a large-enough pool of new customers.
But let’s take a short moment to celebrate. The winners here are the uninsured. About 25 percent of people under the age of 65 in Maine went without health insurance for all or part of 2007-08. The underlying point of the health care law, and any insurance plan, is that risks should be shared between those with more, and those with fewer, risks. And it works best if all people, whether young, old, healthy or sick, participate. The court’s ruling allows for this model to have a chance.
This is a great day for the country! Also a great day for the Supreme Court….Many people were very surprised that they ruled this way, and I have great respect for Justice Roberts who
dared to break with the conservative members to vote this way…There is hope again that the Supreme Court of the land can debate the issues and not always vote with the right wing.
Now people can stop using emergency rooms as their means of health care, and can get the care they need with a Primary Care provider…at a much lower cost…to all of us…
The menbers of Congress who vow to defeat this have never had to buy insurance on their own and have no idea what “We the people” have to go through to get affordable care.
“and not always vote with the right wing”?! Cookie, you need to crack open a text book about Supreme Court judicial activism drifting left since the 1930s and lurching that way since the 1960s.
Nothing activist about this decision. This was an Roberts ensuring the court does not become viewed as too partisan to actually do their jobs. He is acting much in the way that other Chief Justices have acted. His role on the court is unique in that it bears his name. This is the Roberts court. He values a legacy that looks beyond the partisan wrangling of the day and considers the role of the court in our society. A loss of public confidence in this institution is a major liability he does not want to see weaken our lasting government.
Lurching activism is actually a new feature of the conservative justices. Citizens United and Bush v Gore were two decisions that broke from precedent and have sensitized the public to the partisanship now evident on the court.
Left since the 30’s is a joke. Maybe left from 30 until the late 70s but steadily right from there on.
and at much lower cost.. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha the bigget x in histoty and ists at a much lower cost? premiums have nearly doubled since this became law, CBO estimates have doubled, 30 million more people looking for health care. and you are still thinking this is going to reduce costs???
ah….this doesn’t go into effect until 2014!!!!
What you say is not factual.
Yes it is! And let’s not forget the 22 new taxes! Thank you so much, now bend over and take it!
This Obamacare is like painting your house by throwing buckets of paint at the walls and ceilings.
Then I guess Mitt Romney, on whose successful ROMNEYCARE Massachusetts law this law is based, is a “Socialist,” and Bush appointee Chief Justice Roberts is too. This law if full of REPUBLICAN planks (well, at least they used to be until that party went TeaRadical), and we need to get this law fully implemented, give it a chance to work, and tweak it as we go. And what is the right wing alternative?: “If you get sick, go bankrupt or die quickly, whichever comes first.” That’s about it.
You won’t have to die quickly, obozocare will tax you to death!
And then standing back and admiring all the pretty colors and what a great job you did!
Until a republican points out that all your paint contains lead!!!!!
A Republican would never point out that your paint contained lead. Informing the public about the presence of toxic chemicals in the products they use is anti-capitalist, socialist, communist, fascist, and also eco-fascist, after all.
The bottom line is that the mandate has been ruled a TAX and it is the biggest middle class tax increase on the American people EVER! Let’s see how the Dems defend that this November. The silver lining is that the Commerce Clause (at long last) has finally been gutted so Congressional regulatory powers will be eclipsed. So congrats liberals and Dems, you won the battle but in reality might actually have just lost the war…
And how much was it going to cost us if we did nothing?
How much are YOU willing to pay? We already know you don’t mind all the rest of us paying! IF you think for one minute you won’t have to pay, you are delusiona…..oops, forgot who I was talking to.
Please keep your ignorant arguments to yourself. You have no idea what I do for work or how much money I have.
The long arm of the Commerce Clause has been stunted, true. If you think this means it’s “been gutted”, you’re delusional.
Wait and see, seamus. It won’t take long.
I think that the penalties are a tax, not the insurance itself. And it doesn’t affect those who already have health insurance.
First, ROMNEYCARE is Massachusetts, your own boy’s signature law when he was governor there, has time and again been touted by Romney himself, with its individual mandate, as a “national model.” Then, like the fake ultra flip flopper he is, he is now saying he wants to repeal the national version of HIS OWN successful law. In Massachusetts, 98% of the people are now covered and costs are DOWN. It enjoys a 66% approval rating from the people of Massachusetts. Now, so you are better informed than the disgusting LIES you hear on the OxyHeadRush Limpmind show and FAKE-News, the individual responsibility provision, originally a REPUBLICAN IDEA touted by Republicans in Washington and the conservative Heritage Foundation, works like this: You will be offered a large array of PRIVATE plans in the healthcare exchange. You choose a plan. There is a tax CREDIT provision if you qualify for that subsidy to help pay the premiums which will be driven down through the exchange. In order to have a plan that works for everyone and expands coverage, as YOUR guy Romney did in Massachusetts, EVERYONE MUST BE IN THE INSURANCE POOL. If not, when they get sick they go to an emergency room which is extremely expensive and which NOW drives up everyone else’s premiums, so in that sense, YOU are ALREADY being taxed bigtime by the insurance companies due to the BROKEN and IMMORAL system we already have. Now you say you are concerned about taxes. Hmmm… Any concern about the BILLIONS per year of our tax dollars your right wing buddies love to give away to the already-rich oil companies and other corporations? How about the no-bid military industrial complex company contracts? How about to the most SOCIALIST system there is: the BLOATED U.S. military in general which consumes half or more of the national discretionary budget. (Yes, we need a viable military, but does it really need to be that bloated? C’mon now.) You should be outraged about all that if you are concerned about taxes. You should also be outraged by the fact that multi-millionaires like Romney, who killed jobs and sent them overseas, get tax loopholes and hide their money in the Cayman Islands and pay half the tax rates YOU do thus shifting the tax burden on to YOU and the rest of us in the middle class. Next, what is the Republican healthcare plan? Here it is: Destroy Medicare, allow insurance companies to again kick off kids and anyone else off insurance for almost any reason, keep allowing people to go bankrupt when they get sick, and keep having 30-50 million people without healthcare all the while kissing the toes of the insurance company CEO’s and helping them to own more yachts and mansions. The Republicans are unpatriotic, unChristian, and fiscally irresponsible and they prove it day in and day out as they act like pure toadies for the rich and big corporations, American citizens be damned. And come November, they will be hammered at the voting booth because people have had enough of this corporate toadie TeaRadical NONSENSE, especially here in Maine from the likes of LeBUFFOON.
You must feel much lighter after passing all that out of you system!
Nonsense.
It will not be a tax that many will pay. In fact, it is estimated that less than 1% will pay this penalty. Further, the amount of the penalty is capped at 1% of AGI or $1000 whichever is less.
What will happen is now that the law is settled, people will learn what the law actually means, not just how it has been spun by the right. As this happens and reality creeps in, Americans will soon love this law and within a decade, any talk of doing away with it will meet with pitchforks.
The right wing spin machine will meet its first major opposition…the reality of how this law changes real peoples lives for the better. It is not death panels, government run healthcare, a burden on small business or any of the other lies we have been fed a steady diet of. Soon the people will understand this law in the most personal and reasonable way: they will see how it improves their choices and ultimately their health.
Seems to me that about 15% – 20% of people in any given state are uninsured and that is a heck of a lot of people. The question is, when these people are insured, will our premiums go down as we no longer have part of our premiums cover the uninsured, or will the insurance companies jiggle actuarial figures to claim more and higher rate increases are necessary? Also, WHAT panels will be created, and by whom plus comprised of whom to make the decisions about how much care is delivered and to whom? Seems like too much of a chance for a “Logan’s Run” or “Soylent Green” world with the gub’mint running things… Oh, and WHY does Congress get to exempt itself from the same healthcare we peons receive?
Mmmm…. unfortunately I can’t get any more until next Tuesday.
How come the Republicans in Congress don’t give up their own federal employees healthcare and go without it? They are just fine denying care to millions of Americans, but give up their own federal “socialist” plan, NO WAY. The Republicans are walking hypocrites of the worst kind. Just disgusting.
Why didn’t the Democrats mandate everyone get the same level of coverage THEY get????? The Democrats are bumbling hypocrites of the idiotic kind. Just repulsive.
You are not *required* to purchase health insurance. Nobody is holding a gun to your head. However, if you do not purchase health insurance, you will have to pay a tax (based on your income, btw, and nowhere near the cost of insurance itself) to help cover the medical costs of people who need medical services who don’t have insurance and can’t afford to pay — perhaps even you! Seems only fair. And in case people don’t know or have forgotten, that part of ACA was a *Republican* idea!
And the entire Affordable Care Act was largely based on ROMNEYCARE out of Massachusetts where Romney has touted his successful law as a “national model” and where he championed the individual mandate, known also as the “individual responsibility provision.” Now he is saying he wants to repeal the national version of HIS OWN LAW. All this craziness about wanting to repeal the law is total hypocrisy, flip flopping at its very worst, and right wing TeaRadical INSANITY. Plank upon plank of this law are REPUBLICAN ideas, from the individual mandate to using free market exchanges as a way to reduce costs. And what is their alternative now? It is to kill Medicare, chuck people off their health plans for any reason, and help insurance company CEO’s buy more mansions. The American corrupt right wing is just plain disgusting.
Yea … this was the right decision. Justice Roberts has proven to be a clear thinker. Now let’s just move on to the next problem … economy, environment, etc.
And had he voted with the minority, you would have called him delusional.
Yes, in fact, I would have.