Monday, April 05, 2010
My Hope Rests With Justice Kennedy
As all occobs contributors know, Justice Anthony Kennedy is often the swing vote in 5-4 decisions. The count is now up to 16 states suing the federal government over the health care bill. The only remotely plausible argument for constitutionality of requiring citizens to purchase a commercial product is the commerce clause. It states:
If the Supreme court allows the requirement, I anticipate someone will attempt to buy insurance across state lines as a challenge to the current restriction with the commerce clause a justification. Perhaps opening the market across state lines can be a small victory.
Also, Michele Bachmann seems pretty awesome.
[The Congress shall have power] To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, andLet's analyze. Obviously we're not talking about foreign nations or Indian tribes, so the pundits must be referring to regulating Commerce among the several States. My understanding is that this is usually applied to transactions between at least two states. Since the bill requires an individual to purchase a commercial product that he can only buy within the state he resides, I can't understand how the commerce clause allows the requirement of this bill. I'm cautiously optimistic that the Supreme Court will make the same finding, but Kennedy is the buggest question mark.
among the several States, and with the Indian tribes;
If the Supreme court allows the requirement, I anticipate someone will attempt to buy insurance across state lines as a challenge to the current restriction with the commerce clause a justification. Perhaps opening the market across state lines can be a small victory.
Also, Michele Bachmann seems pretty awesome.
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4 comments:
To me, the commerce clause would allow the federal government to control things like insurance portability across state lines. However, I just don't see how the authority to regulate commerce would give them the right to create or force the existence of commerce where before there was none. By forcing people to buy insurance, they are not regulating--they are creating.
At best I would say that if the argument is that the only way for insurance to remain affordable if they expand coverage is for everyone to own it, then the federal government's only constitutional option (IMO) is to raise taxes and use that money to supplement the insurance companies. Likely this is where we will unfortunately end up if the Supreme Court overturns the health bill.
And by the way, I love how the Dems vilify the insurance companies. I decided to look into this a bit further, to see exactly how fat their profits were. Surely they must be sky high, the way the Dems discuss them.
How does 1% treat you? That's the profit margin at several major health insurance companies. In fact, for many the only reason they were profitable last year was because of positive returns on their investment portfolio, not from operations. Clearly, the problem is not that insurance companies are overcharging and living large.
The problem is that hospitals are forced to overbill private insurance to cover the fact that Medicare patients only pay 50-75% of their bills.
Is that 1% margin before or after the CEO and Directors take their fat 8 figure bonuses, company planes, and hoors, er, conferences?
I know. I know all about it.
But then you go in there,