NewsRack: newstrust/Health-Care/Individual-Mandate

From Adversaries to Partners - American Prospect

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

The states came out as winners in the Affordable Care Act, though some don't seem to realize it.

Democrats Told To Stop Campaigning On Obamacare - Red State

() — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

The Politico headline is actually New Dem message: ‘Improve’ health care, don’t talk cost , but that is not wholly what is going on. What is going on is a recognition from the Democrats that after a year of trying to sell Obamacare as a panacea of right thinking and improvement, the voters headed to the polls in November disagree and are angry. Consequently, the Politico notes that Democrats are abandoning all pretenses of selling Obamacare to the public and have cut and run back to “if you don’t replace us with the Republicans, we promise we will improve it.” The confidential presentation, available in full here and provided to POLITICO by a source on the call, suggests that Democrats are acknowledging ...

Severability and Obamacare - NewsTrust Yahoo Pipes Feed

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Several state legislators have reached out to me recently with questions about the nature of severability and Obamacare . Since some Redstaters seem to have questions as well , I thought I’d explain a bit about what this means. Most laws of large size and scope have something called a “severability clause” attached to them. Essentially, this means that if one part of a piece of large legislation is ruled unconstitutional by a court, that unconstitutional portion is “severed” from the rest of the bill — the ruling doesn’t stop the rest of the law from being enforced. The trouble for Obamacare is that it doesn’t have a severability clause . If you’re an opponent of Obamacare, this all sounds ...

The Next Health-Reform Campaign - American Prospect

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Supporters of reform knew they had to battle to get it passed. Now they need to wage another campaign to implement it.

What Social Security Can Teach Us About the Future of Health Care - Truthout - All Articles

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Americans will learn to love health care reform, just as they did Social Security, if it’s made to work for all of them.

At the heart of the right-wing attack on the new health care law’s individual mandate is the fact that law has the potential to become like Social Security, a popular entitlement that is an integral part of the American social fabric. Whether that promise is realized depends on no small measure on whether Congress will make improvements over time in the health care law to assure that health coverage is affordable.

Center for American Progress Attacks Howard Dean - NewsTrust Yahoo Pipes Feed

Bob Brigham — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

In the latest sign Bizarro World is the new normal, Center for American Progress Policy Analyst Ian Millhiser took to Think Progress to attack Dr. Howard Dean. The slam on Governor Dean came up during a discussion on Proposition C, a ballot initiative in the battleground state of Missouri against the individual mandate that just passed with over 70% of the vote. Here's how Millhiser quotes Dr. Dean: [T]he truth is the mandate"s not essential to the plan anyway. It never was essential to the plan. They did it in Massachusetts and had a mandate, but we have universal health care for kids in my state without a mandate. … I made this prediction before and I"m going to make it again: by the time this thing goes into effect in ...

Howard Dean: Individual mandate will disappear - Raw Story

Daniel Tencer — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

The individual mandate requiring people to buy health insurance will disappear before health care reform is fully implemented in 2014, Howard Dean said Friday. The former Democratic Party chairman and vocal champion of health care reform told MSNBC that "by the time this thing goes into effect in 2014, I think the mandate will be [...]

States defend suit challenging Obama health care law - MSNBC

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

States defend suit challenging Obama health care law

Is healthcare reform ailing? - LA Times: Opinion

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Is healthcare reform ailing?

The conservative effort to undermine health-care reform - Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

I'm really not sure why conservatives are so excited that a Missouri anti-individual mandate ballot initiative passed in an election composed of two-thirds Republican primary voters. I don't even understand why conservatives would be excited if it passed during a normal election. For one thing, states can't invalidate federal laws. If a Republican Congress privatized Social Security and Vermont didn't like it, a ballot initiative wouldn't invalidate the law. If Paul Ryan passed his legislation to turn Medicaid into a program of vouchers and private insurance options, Massachusetts couldn't overturn it. The federal government has long resisted letting states decide which federal laws to follow and which to avoid. It will continue to resist. ...

Seventy One Percent of Missouri Voters Agree With Candidate Obama - NewsTrust Yahoo Pipes Feed

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

On Tuesday, Missouri voters went to the polls. Among other things, the voters decided on Proposition C, a statute exempting Missouri from the individual mandate from Obamacare. By an overwhelming percentage , voters rejected Obamacare and passed Prop C (71.1 to 28.9). This ardent rejection of the individual mandate puts Missouri voters on par with then-Candidate Obama who, during the 2008 primary, attacked Sen Hillary Clinton’s health care plan because it contained an individual mandate. For those of you who don’t remember, here’s video of President Obama sounding much like his opposition just a few short months later. Gee, if only President Obama would have listened to Candidate Obama he wouldn’t have had to face ...

The Paul Ryan Solution to the Individual Mandate Dilemma - The Atlantic - Matthew Ygblesias

myglesias — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

With the moral and legal legitimacy of an “individual mandate” to purchase health insurance continuing to be the subject of controversy, it’s worth observing that conservative hero Paul Ryan lights the path to reformulating the exact same policy in a manner that seems to pass the right’s ideological litmus test. After all, once Ryan abolishes [...]

GOP Kills Health Care for 9/11 Workers, Rails at "Ground Zero Mosque" - Truthout - All Articles

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Last Thursday, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) launched into a righteous tirade against the GOP's attempts to derail a health care package for 9/11 first responders. His House floor antics became an instant viral video classic. Weiner and the House Dems were trying to pass a $7 billion health care assistance package for first responders, cleanup workers and others injured at Ground Zero in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, many of whom developed chronic and poorly-understood health problems as a result of their service.

Cornyn Attacks Activist Judges, Then Attacks Kagan As Insufficently Activist - Think Progres

Ian M. — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

In a floor speech explaining his opposition to Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) attacked her for refusing the endorse the frivolous argument that unelected judges should strike down the health care law enacted by elected representatives: I was also troubled by a couple of other areas . . . One has to [...]

Today in Washington - August 3, 2004 - Red State

() — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Anti gun activist Elena Kagan’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court hits the Senate floor today. Ironically, this is the same day that the Washington Post reports that a federal judge in Virginia refused to dismiss a challenge to ObamaCare’s mandates. This case is going to the U.S. Supreme Court, yet many Senators are not willing to put up a real fight before this left wing extremist is provided a lifetime appointment to the High Court. From the WP: A federal judge refused Monday to dismiss a Virginia lawsuit challenging the nation’s sweeping new health-care law, indicating the law represents a novel extension of Congress’s constitutional authority that should be tested in court and handing the law’s foes an ...

BREAKING: Federal Judge Allows Virginia's Constitutional Challenge to Affordable Care Act - Crooks Liars

karoli — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

In a somewhat predictable but still annoying move, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson refused to dismiss Attorney General Ken Cucinelli's lawsuit seeking to challenge the constitutional grounds for the Affordable Care Act. The key language in the 32-page ruling (PDF) is this: While this case raises a host of complex constitutional issues, all seem to distill to the single question of whether or not Congress has the power to regulate -- and tax -- a citizen's decision not to participate in interstate commerce. Neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor any circuit court of appeals has squarely addresses this issue. No reported case from any federal appellate court has extended the Commerce Clause or Tax Clause to include the regulation of a person's ...

Judge Rules Virginia Can Sue Over Health Care Law - NYT: Home Page

By JOHN SCHWARTZ — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

A federal judge has refused to block the challenge to the law by Virginia, one of 21 states bringing similar suits.

Judge Preserves Constitutional Challenge to Individual Mandate - NewsTrust Yahoo Pipes Feed

JB — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Judge Preserves Constitutional Challenge to Individual Mandate

OKAY, I LINKED THIS STEPHEN GREEN COLUMN EARLIER, but this bit is worth quoting on its own: Candi… - Instapundit

Glenn Reynolds — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT

OKAY, I LINKED THIS STEPHEN GREEN COLUMN EARLIER, but this bit is worth quoting on its own: Candidate Barack Obama ran as a moderate. He promised a “net spending cut.” Health reform was not, we were assured, intended to take over the insurance industry or feature an individual mandate. Taxes would go down for anyone making [...]

The Original Individual Mandate, Circa 1792 - The Health Care Blog

Matthew — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT

By BRADLEY LATINO Regardless of one’s opinion on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s constitutionality, most commentators-and no less an authority than the Congressional Budget Office)-agree (or concede, as the case may be) that Congress has never required Americans...

Massachusetts Offers Preview of Obamacare - Newsweek Top Stories

Robert J. Samuelson — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT

If you want a preview of President Obama's health-care "reform," take a look at Massachusetts. In 2006, it enacted a "reform" that became a model for Obama. What's happened since isn't encouraging. The state did the easy part: expanding state-subsidized insurance coverage. It evaded the hard part: controlling costs and ensuring that spending improves people's health.

Suing Obamacare - American Spectator

Douglas Smith — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Suing Obamacare

NYT: WH Defending Health Ins. Penalties As 'Taxes' In Court Despite Obama's Vehement 2009 Denial - NewsTrust Yahoo Pipes Feed

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT

The truth comes out. Okay, it was always out there. It's just that the Barack Obama and the folks in his administration were denying it. The issue in question is whether the individual mandate and penalties for not purchasing health insurance in the statist health care legislation commonly known as ObamaCare should rightly be considered taxes, or if they are something else. In a report dated Friday that appeared in the paper's print edition at Page A14 on Sunday , Robert Pear at the New York Times noted that in legal proceedings, in response to litigation brought by state attorneys general, the administration is now characterizing the mandate and penalties as taxes. Note the subtle water-down that occurred between the web page's title bar and ...

Massachusetts Offers Preview of Obamacare - Newsweek Top Stories

Robert J. Samuelson — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT

WH: Individual mandate now a tax. - Red State

() — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Democrats, administration apologists hardest hit. (H/T: Hot Air Headlines ) If you are surprised at this … [deep breath] well. You should not be. When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.” [snip] Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations. The individual mandate is a tax. It has always been a tax , ...