The GOP's self-destructive jihad against healthcare reform

[one...two...tree 2,762]

A judge rules part of the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Republicans should be careful what they wish for

By Andrew Leonard

So a Virginia District Court judge appointed by George W. Bush and part-owner of a Republican consulting company that worked to oppose health care reform has ruled that a key section of the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. This is neither a surprise to anyone who has been following the GOP's legal assault against reform nor is it anything close to a deathblow.

Judge Henry Hudson specifically ruled that the "individual mandate" requiring Americans to buy insurance or pay a fine "exceeds the constitutional boundaries of congressional power." But he did not grant a stay halting implementation of the law, and he did not, as some crusaders against reform had hoped, throw out the entire law altogether. There is no questioning that the "individual mandate" is a critical piece of the package -- without it, it would be much more difficult to keep costs down overall. You need as many healthy Americans as possible buying insurance in order to make the economics work for significantly expanded coverage. But two other district court judges (both Clinton appointees) have already upheld the law against similar challenges, and the end game, as everyone has known from the beginning, will be the Supreme Court.

That finale is still possibly years away and in the meantime, the infrastructure construction of health care reform will continue. But the partisan tinge to the decisions so far, combined with the conservative tilt of the Supreme Court, do raise an obvious question. Is a rejection by the Supremes already a fait accompli? Maybe, but the fact that only one part of the law has been ruled unconstitutional so far actually lowers the probability that the ACA will be junked entirely. Ezra Klein, who already has three posts today analyzing the news from multiple angles, believes that Hudson's refusal to go all in should be encouraging news to health reformers.

The real danger to health-care reform is not that the individual mandate will be struck down by the courts. That'd be a problem, but there are a variety of ways to restructure the individual mandate such that it doesn't penalize anyone for deciding not to do something (which is the core of the conservative's legal argument against the provision).... The danger is that, in striking down the individual mandate, the court would also strike down the rest of the bill. In fact, that's exactly what the plaintiff has asked Hudson to do... Hudson pointedly refused.

The tragic irony built into Republicans cheering the kind of judicial activism that they usually deplore, while waging war against the mandate -- a scheme dreamed up by Republicans in the first place as a stratagem for protecting the private health insurance sector against an expanding public government role in health care provision -- became tiresome and hardly worth calling attention to long ago. But Klein sees a silver lining. If Republicans manage to knock out the part of the Affordable Care Act that actually makes the numbers add up, what solution will they find to the long run problem of ever-rising health care costs?

But if Republicans get it ruled unconstitutional in America, they'd be wise to ask themselves what other options they have: After all, the constitutionality of Medicare is not in question, and that's really the other model we could eventually trend toward.

Klein then quotes a Washington Post column by opinion writer Matt Miller.

Conservatives, either from confusion, or for the sheer fun of taking a political bite out of Democrats, are fighting the one measure that's essential if private insurance is to retain its central role in American health care ... [but] be careful what you wish for. By fighting the mandate needed to make private insurance solutions work, and doing nothing to ease the health cost burden on everyday Americans, you'll hasten the day when the public throws up its hands and says, "Just give us single-payer and price controls." Don't think the anti-government wave this fall won't reverse itself on health care if the most private sector-oriented health care system on earth keeps delivering the world's costliest, most inefficient care.

http://www.salon.com...nconstitutional

[JohnSmith2007 353]

Conservatives, either from confusion, or for the sheer fun of taking a political bite out of Democrats, are fighting the one measure that's essential if private insurance is to retain its central role in American health care ... [but] be careful what you wish for. By fighting the mandate needed to make private insurance solutions work, and doing nothing to ease the health cost burden on everyday Americans, you'll hasten the day when the public throws up its hands and says, "Just give us single-payer and price controls." Don't think the anti-government wave this fall won't reverse itself on health care if the most private sector-oriented health care system on earth keeps delivering the world's costliest, most inefficient care.

If the dems had given us single payer while they had the chance we wouldn't be going through all this. Whatever pain we have because the reps are doing exactly what they said they were going to do is the fault of the dems. The mish-mash bill we got is a huge step back over what we should have gotten. If you want to blame someone then point your finger in the right direction, right at Reid, Pelosi and Obama.

[Pooky 3,794]

If the dems had given us single payer while they had the chance we wouldn't be going through all this. Whatever pain we have because the reps are doing exactly what they said they were going to do is the fault of the dems. The mish-mash bill we got is a huge step back over what we should have gotten. If you want to blame someone then point your finger in the right direction, right at Reid, Pelosi and Obama.

Unless we finally get a properly-planned single payer system, we will go on having the world's costliest, most inefficient care. This "healthcare" reform bill did nothing to address that problem. In fact, with all the add-on parts that paid for the votes to pass it, this bill only exacerbates the problem.

Because the main inefficiency in the system is the insurance companies themselves and this bill only strengthened their hold on the money, trying to mandate the maximum possible revenue stream. The inefficiency comes when you get down to the primary function of the insurance companies, which has nothing to do with healthcare and everything to do with making a profit for their shareholders. Right now, estimates are that up to 20% of the money is drained from the system by the insurance companies. And this administration just gave them a lock on where the money goes.

How can we have an efficient healthcare system while this continues?

As for the thread title, I don't know who would be more insulted, Muslims, or the GOP?

Edited December 15, 2010 by Pooky

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Pooky are you implying there are no Muslims in the GOP? *gasp*

[Pooky 3,794]

Pooky are you implying there are no Muslims in the GOP? *gasp*

Not in the slightest. I reckon they'd be insulted either way.

[alienlovechild 75]

As for the thread title, I don't know who would be more insulted, Muslims, or the GOP?

It's becoming fashionable to use words like "hostage takers", "a cult" and "jihad" to describe the GOP and that's coming from the White House and "respectable sources" not wild-eyed crazies. By 2012, I'm expecting it to pretty ugly compared to 2008. Obama represented hope and change to some and now that's gone and people aren't where to turn.

[luckytxn 2,264]

LOL. Love that the only talk is that we have to go to single payer system as the only alternative left. What morons. There is other ways and that is for the Feds to back off and get out of trying to control the populace in any form. Just go and try to handle the one thing that was mentioned that they are to do and that is to protect us from enemies foreign and domestic and let us citizens in the states we live in handle our own lives as we seem fit to do. Get all of your greedy hands out of mine pocket and stay away. Want to create Ponzi schemes like Social security? Then the politicians should do it and live on it themselves.

There is another way and that is to get rid of it all. There is no problem and I have excellent health care and always have. The only problem I have seen is that now my premiums have shot way up after they finished handing out this huge giveaway to their partners in crime the health care insurance industry. Talk about robbery, sheesh.

[Danno 1,228]

What I don't get is the logic of this:" GOP's self destructive Jihad..."

And here I thought the GOP had one of the most successful elections in recent memory.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

What I don't get is the logic of this:" GOP's self destructive Jihad..."

And here I thought the GOP had one of the most successful elections in recent memory.

And surprisingly, they derived that to some degree by running against their own policy. The health care reform of 2010 is really the 1993 health care reform proposal of the GOP. If the only way you can win is by running hot against your own policy rather than embracing it and running on the fact that the other side has conceded to what you knew all along was the right thing to do, then that would suggest some degree of self-destruction. After all, the GOP's stance on this issue means that they admit to have attempted to sell the foulest of policies to the American people.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

The author is an idiot and the Supreme Court is hypocritical if it doesn't strike down the entire bill based on a part of it being unconstitutional.

The SCOTUS already ruled on this exact thing when they said that the line-item veto was unconstitutional. They said it's the whole bill or no bill at all that becomes law.

Therefore it stands to reason that if a part of a bill is unconstitutional, then the whole thing has to go back to square one.

This isn't "judicial activism" as the moron wants to call it, it's called actually doing their damn legal job.

[The_Dude 1,142]

If the dems had given us single payer while they had the chance we wouldn't be going through all this. Whatever pain we have because the reps are doing exactly what they said they were going to do is the fault of the dems. The mish-mash bill we got is a huge step back over what we should have gotten. If you want to blame someone then point your finger in the right direction, right at Reid, Pelosi and Obama.

Unless we finally get a properly-planned single payer system, we will go on having the world's costliest, most inefficient care. This "healthcare" reform bill did nothing to address that problem. In fact, with all the add-on parts that paid for the votes to pass it, this bill only exacerbates the problem.

Because the main inefficiency in the system is the insurance companies themselves and this bill only strengthened their hold on the money, trying to mandate the maximum possible revenue stream. The inefficiency comes when you get down to the primary function of the insurance companies, which has nothing to do with healthcare and everything to do with making a profit for their shareholders. Right now, estimates are that up to 20% of the money is drained from the system by the insurance companies. And this administration just gave them a lock on where the money goes.

How can we have an efficient healthcare system while this continues?

As for the thread title, I don't know who would be more insulted, Muslims, or the GOP?

QFT.

I dont' like the health care bill as it currently is written because all it does is increase revenues to health insurance companies. That is only making things worse. The insurance companies ARE the problem. My hope was that this would be struck down, and a single-payer system, or some sort of hybrid system like what is used in France, Canada, or Switzterland would be used. But with the change in congress, I fear we will be moving towards more libertarian retarded madness.

There is another way and that is to get rid of it all. There is no problem and I have excellent health care and always have. The only problem I have seen is that now my premiums have shot way up after they finished handing out this huge giveaway to their partners in crime the health care insurance industry. Talk about robbery, sheesh.

No offense, but that is just ignorant. You may want to pull your head out of the sand and look beyond the end of your own nose. There is more to life, and a lot more to this world.