Health Care Mandate Unconstitutional … Good news? Not so fast.

At least that’s what conservatarian author and  leader of the Tea Party Movement in Connecticut, Bob McGuffie says. Unintended consequences?

Shortly after starting this discussion this morning, based on the Sound Off Sister’s review of Judge Hudson declaring the personal mandate portion of Obamacare unconstitutional, Bob McGuffie, of RightPrinciples.com, sent me this e-mail. Chilling my little mobsters.

Jim,

If the Virginia ruling by Judge Hudson prevails it could well lead directly to single-payer gov’t healthcare.  I wrote the below explanation to a Committees of Correspondence e-mail group to which I belong…….

The “purchasing” individual mandate is in the law to counterbalance the “no pre-existing conditions exclusion” mandate imposed on the health insurers.  It’s there so that people do not wait to buy health insurance until after they’ve been diagnosed with a serious condition.  Without it the insurance programs would tank financially.  Now, many observers seem to be assuming that if the purchasing mandate is declared unconstitutional the entire law will also be declared unconstitutional because there’s no “severability” clause in it.  However, judges have been known to impose severability in their judgements even when the clause is absent from the law.  And Judge Hudson indicated that was a possibility in this case and I believe “severed” the individual mandate from the rest of the law.  The result would be a financial catastrophe for the health insurers.

Howard Dean was on the air this morning saying that the purchasing mandate was required in the law by the insurance carriers and the Administration should not worry too much about it even if the Supreme Court ultimately strikes it from the law.  Naturally he made no comment on the financial impact to the insurers – he and the rest of the Left don’t care.  All roads lead to the Public Option.  Were all this to come to pass the carriers would have to raise rates geometrically and/or withdraw from the health insurance market.  Without a complete repeal by the congress with a presidential signature we’ll be on the highway to single-payer government run healthcare……………………..

Diabolical. First drive the insurance companies out of business … then impose government run health care. Uh oh. Gulp. I will try to get the sound from Howard Dean tomorrow and hopefully we can get Bob to join us tomorrow too.

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Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

7 Comments

  1. Lynn on December 14, 2010 at 9:09 am

    While I agree with Bob McGuffie on his point above and I agree with everything on his website, I do still have hope. I have raised this point myself on the Machiavellian way Obamacare was structured. The high costs were all front-loaded making it nearly impossible for insurance companies to survive. However, the point still has to be made that Congress cannot force us to buy anything! So I believe this needs to be decided in the Supreme Court. My optimism comes from what Paul Ryan tried to say to Obama on how to address the high costs of healthcare using capitalist principles. Allowing companies to sell policies that do not have to meet the ridiculous one standard with all the coverage mandates  (Olympia Snows evil legacy) is one way, specifying that states can handle the pool of people with pre-existing conditions without the federal bureaucracy and making insurance companies sell across state lines, allowing smaller, efficient companies to open to offer policies to specific groups. I know I sound like a Pollyanna, but free enterprise can dig us out. The New Congress has not yet started its work, I have faith in them. Most important, like Medusa, we need to cut ALL the heads off of the head of Obamacare, otherwise it will continue to grow.



  2. Lynn on December 14, 2010 at 9:10 am

    Sorry Jim, I am so passionate about this subject I just can't keep it short.



  3. winnie888 on December 14, 2010 at 9:33 am

    Uh oh is right, Jim.  There is always something lurking in the wings to pee on our parade, isn't there?



  4. GdavidH on December 14, 2010 at 1:08 pm

    Buzz kill #1= Extending the tax rates only 2 years, along with a crapload of earmarks might not work to improve the economy, giving Obama something to run on against repubs in 2012.

    Did we really need this buzz kill#2 ??

    The Obama administration is looking like it came to play hard in this lame duck session



  5. Dimsdale on December 14, 2010 at 5:09 pm

    Kill the funding, then, when conditions permit, kill Øbamacare.



  6. Lynn on December 15, 2010 at 2:35 am

    Yes of course, Kill the funding.



  7. GdavidH on December 15, 2010 at 5:22 am

    See the porkapalooza post from today. I think the dems one-up'd the repubs on the de-funding of O'care, as dems would do



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