Verbatim (cont.)
Some of our elected officials (i.e. Ohio governor John Kasich and others) have done little or nothing to implement this law which has been on the books for over 2 years. Enough foot-dragging, its time to get to work!
We go on.....
I still can't figure out why the right wing is so against an idea that the Heritage Foundation came up with and that they had formerly endorsed. The mandate was a concession to them instead of pressing for either a single payer plan or one with a public option.
If, according to Roberts, Congress cannot regulate healthcare under the Commerce Clause, then how can all of the provisions of PPACA which do not relate to taxes continue to stand? It seems that Robert's majority opinion opens the door to overturn everything EXCEPT the individual mandate (ie, everything which is unrelated to the taxing power of Congress).
I believe the Chief Justice interpreted the constitutionality of the individual mandate very narrowly.
The entire bill is extremely intrusive on employers and individuals. Will the government ever realise that businesses exist to earn profits, not as a source of revenue to fund government bureaucracies and programs?
Roberts was right, the mandate is/was a tax. For a healthy person who is young and not very likely to become a burden on society by being sick, it might be reasonable for them to pay the tax as it will be cheaper than insurance. However, as someone who has suffered from allergies all my life, I am grateful for the ability to have insurance and that my employer offers insurance. For "medical" care it is great, for Vision and Dental, it stinks. I just want Congress to reset the FSA limit back to $5,000 as I go through that in my family of three by October. The new $2,500 limit will be gone by June.
Upholding the entire law is not the most convenient or cheapest result for our organization, but it is the right decision for the country.
Was very disappointed in the decision. The federal government is intruding into our lives that should concern everyone. This country was founded on the principles of freedom but those freedoms are eroding. If we don't do something soon we will have none. What is next? A tax on breathing. Oh wait, I hear Congress is voting on that today.
I live in an old-fashioned dream world, but the government 1) has no business in this area of private life at all and 2) destroys everything it tries to run. We are doomed. We need for individual people and businesses to operate ethically, responsibly and without rampant greed - that would fix all the health care woes we currently have. By allowing this program to continue "as is" we have opened ourselves up to the complete disappearance eventually of every single individual freedom we have left. Freedom is the very thing our founders fought and died for, the very thing we are supposed to be celebrating this week, but this current country has no concept of what that means or of the consequences of throwing it away. What a very sad day for us and also for people throughout the world who dream of being free.
This legislation may not be perfect, but it is a major step forward and has already begun to produce positive change in the health care industry. This was the best possible result. Second choice would have been to kill the whole law simply because any half-way measure would have created nothing but chaos.
I find the whole thing very distasteful. The American public has really been conned. The Congress and the President have represented this as health care reform - but there is absolutely nothing in there about health care. It's all about health insurance - which is a financial vehicle. I'm appalled that the government thinks they can compel me to buy something - anything - be it health insurance or broccoli or whatever. This debate is not about health care. I don't deny that we have to have to have meaningful discussion and policy on access to health care. Unfortunately, the politicians took the easy out by addressing health insurance instead - banking on the fact the average American doesn't know the difference. From my perspective, when you combine this with the USA Patriot Act, which also significantly eroded our personal freedom, we now live in the Russia that we feared when I was a child - and Americans on both sides of the aisle are cheering about it.