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| − | '''Obamacare''' is the term some critics<ref>http://townhall.com/columnists/KevinMcCullough/2009/08/06/welcome_to_gestapo-care</ref> use to describe Congressional [[Democrats]]' and the [[Obama Administration]]'s health care bill, which Congress passed into federal law on March 21, 2010, effectively beginning the process to socialize America's health care system. Through legislative mandates, ObamaCare requires private citizens to purchase health insurance, involuntarily fund abortions, and pay for sex offenders to use Viagara under the threat of legal sanctions if they do not. The new laws impose as much as a $1,000 fine on citizens for failure to comply.<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/02/senate-democrats-trim-cost-health-care/</ref> The [[Congressional Budget Office]] (CBO) estimates the unconstitutional revenue generating device could produce as much as $36 billion over ten years.<ref>[http://allnurses-central.com/world-news-current/proposed-senate-plan-405168.html Proposed Senate Plan Would Involve IRS in Collecting Fines from Non-participants], ALLNURSES CENTRAL, Jul 03, 2009.</ref> The fines are euphemistically dubbed "shared responsibility payments."<ref>http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles/cbo-reports-entitlements-and-shared-responsibility</ref> Employers would be required to deduct the penalties from employees paychecks.<ref>http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00421</ref> | + | '''ObamaCare''',<ref>http://townhall.com/columnists/KevinMcCullough/2009/08/06/welcome_to_gestapo-care</ref> more formally known as "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," was passed by Congress into federal law on March 21, 2010, and signed into law by President [[Barack Obama]] on March 23. This law began the process to socialize America's health care system. Through legislative mandates, ObamaCare requires private citizens to purchase health insurance, involuntarily fund [[abortion]]s, and pay for sex offenders to use Viagara under the threat of legal sanctions if they do not. The new law imposes penalties that will increase to 2.5% of one's income if he fails to purchase government-approved health insurance. |
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| − | The [[Association of American Physicians and Surgeons]] (AAPS) maintains there are no redeeming provisions of Obama's health care plan and offers a number of criticisms of Obama's health care plan. <ref>http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00377</ref> The AAPS maintains that Obama's health care plan will significantly increase the overall cost of health care to United States public plus reduce the quality of care that the system provides.<ref>http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00377</ref> Political analyst and | + | The [[Congressional Budget Office]] (CBO) estimates the unconstitutional revenue generating device could produce as much as $36 billion over ten years.<ref>[http://allnurses-central.com/world-news-current/proposed-senate-plan-405168.html Proposed Senate Plan Would Involve IRS in Collecting Fines from Non-participants], ALLNURSES CENTRAL, Jul 03, 2009.</ref> The fines are euphemistically dubbed "shared responsibility payments."<ref>http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles/cbo-reports-entitlements-and-shared-responsibility</ref> Employers would be required to deduct the penalties from employees paychecks.<ref>http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00421</ref> |
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| | + | The [[Association of American Physicians and Surgeons]] (AAPS) points out that there are no redeeming provisions of Obama's health care plan and offers a number of criticisms of Obama's health care plan.<ref>http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00377</ref> The AAPS maintains that Obama's health care plan will significantly increase the overall cost of health care to United States public plus reduce the quality of care that the system provides.<ref>http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00377</ref> Political analyst and |
| | commentator [[Dick Morris]] has asserted that Obama's health care plan will lead to the significant use of rationing senior health care which will decrease the life span of senior citizens.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsImVGsFlmA</ref> | | commentator [[Dick Morris]] has asserted that Obama's health care plan will lead to the significant use of rationing senior health care which will decrease the life span of senior citizens.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsImVGsFlmA</ref> |
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| − | The State of [[Massachusetts]] has had a similiar program in place for several years.<ref>http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00421</ref> | + | The State of [[Massachusetts]] has had a similar program in place for several years, and many have elected to pay the penalties rather than purchase insurance, and many remain uninsured.<ref>http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00421</ref> |
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| | + | Obamacare will do more than detrimentally impact healthcare accessibility. According to the [[Heritage Foundation]], Obama is intentionally sacrificing millions of jobs at a time when unemployment is around 10% with the Medicare surtax without any objective expection of increases in revenues.<ref>http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/03/Obamas-Capital-Gains-Tax-Hike-Unlikely-to-Increase-Revenues</ref> |
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| | + | == Basis for Legal Challenges == |
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| | + | ObamaCare includes an "individual responsibility requirement" compelling persons to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. The legal justification for this requirement by Congress is the [[Commerce Clause]]: |
| | + | {{cquote|The individual responsibility requirement provided for in this section ... is commercial and economic in nature, and substantially affects interstate commerce, as a result of the effects described in paragraph (2). ... [Paragraph (2) states,] The requirement regulates activity that is commercial and economic in nature: economic and financial decisions about how and when health care is paid for, and when health insurance is purchased.}} |
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| | + | Apparently uncertain that this would withstand legal scrutiny as a valid exercise of Commerce Clause authority, on March 21 (the same day as passage) the Joint Committee on Taxation released a 157-page "technical explanation" of the bill. This "explanation" grounded the justification for the bill in the tax authority of Congress, and nowhere mentioned commerce. As Professor Randy Barnett explained in an article on April 29, 2010 in the Wall Street Journal: |
| | + | {{cquote|The word "commerce" appeared nowhere. Instead, the personal mandate is dubbed an "Excise Tax on Individuals Without Essential Health Benefits Coverage." But while the enacted bill does impose excise taxes on "high cost," employer-sponsored insurance plans and "indoor tanning services," the statute never describes the regulatory "penalty" it imposes for violating the mandate as an "excise tax." It is expressly called a "penalty."}} |
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| | + | Professor Barnett then explained that in ''Bailey v. Drexel Furniture'' (1922), "the Supreme Court struck down such a penalty saying, 'there comes a time in the extension of the penalizing features of the so-called tax when it loses its character as such and becomes a mere penalty with the characteristics of regulation and punishment.'" A subsequent Supreme Court decision, ''U.S. v. Kahriger'' (1953), upheld a punitive tax on gambling based on an express statement in the law that Congress was exercising its power to tax. No such statement exists in ObamaCare. ''See also Sonzinsky v. U.S.'' (1937) ("Inquiry into the hidden motives which may move Congress to exercise a power constitutionally conferred upon it is beyond the competency of courts."). Professor Barnett noted that the penalty is not enforced as a tax in a customary manner, providing further evidence that ObamaCare is based on the Commerce Clause and not on any taxing authority. |
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| | + | It has also been pointed out that because the penalty applies to inactivity, it is beyond the powers authorized by the [[Sixteenth Amendment]] anyway. |
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| − | Obamacare will not only detrimentally impact healthcare accessiblity. According to the Heritage foundation, Obama is intentionally sacrificing millions of jobs at a time when unemployment is around 10% with the Medicare surtax without any objective expection of increases in revenues.<ref>http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/03/Obamas-Capital-Gains-Tax-Hike-Unlikely-to-Increase-Revenues</ref>
| + | ==History of Mandatory Coverage== |
| − | ==Mandatory Coverage== | |
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| − | One such proposal would create a system to require adults (over age 19, U.S. citizens, not incarcerated) to enroll themselves and dependent children in a plan through the state-wide Health Help Agency (HHA) unless they provide evidence of enrollment or coverage through Medicare, a health insurance plan offered by the Department of Defense, an employee benefit plan through a former employer (i.e. retiree health plans), a qualified collective bargaining agreement, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or the Indian Health Service. There may by a religious exemption under this proposal. Each adult would have the responsibility to enroll each child in a plan. Dependent children include individuals up to age 24 claimed by their parents for deductions in the tax code. | + | One of the early proposals (a predecessor to the one enacted) would create a system to require adults (over age 19, U.S. citizens, not incarcerated) to enroll themselves and dependent children in a plan through the state-wide Health Help Agency (HHA) unless they provide evidence of enrollment or coverage through Medicare, a health insurance plan offered by the Department of Defense, an employee benefit plan through a former employer (i.e. retiree health plans), a qualified collective bargaining agreement, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or the Indian Health Service. There may by a religious exemption under this proposal. Each adult would have the responsibility to enroll each child in a plan. Dependent children include individuals up to age 24 claimed by their parents for deductions in the tax code. |
| | [[File:Penalty.jpg|right|thumbnail|200px|If an individual fails to purchase coverage and does not meet the exceptions or the religious exemption, then under Obamacare a financial penalty may be assessed for non-indigent individuals.]] | | [[File:Penalty.jpg|right|thumbnail|200px|If an individual fails to purchase coverage and does not meet the exceptions or the religious exemption, then under Obamacare a financial penalty may be assessed for non-indigent individuals.]] |
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| − | ===Penalty for Failure to Purchase Coverage=== | + | ===History of Penalty for Failure to Purchase Coverage=== |
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| | + | If an individual fails to purchase coverage and does not meet the exceptions or the religious exemption, then a financial penalty will be assessed for non-indigent individuals. Under an early proposal for mandatory care, the penalty was calculated by multiplying the number of uncovered months times the weighted average of the monthly premium for a plan in the person’s coverage class and coverage area, plus 15 percent. |
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| − | If an individual fails to purchase coverage and does not meet the exceptions or the religious exemption, then a financial penalty will be assessed for non-indigent individuals. Under this particular proposal for mandatory care, the penalty is calculated by multiplying the number of uncovered months times the weighted average of the monthly premium for a plan in the person’s coverage class and coverage area, plus 15 percent.
| + | Fines were to be paid to the HHA of the State in which the person resides. That agency also may establish a procedure to waive the penalty if the penalty poses a hardship. Each State would determine appropriate mechanisms to enforce the requirement that individuals be enrolled.<ref> http://wyden.senate.gov/issues/Healthy%20Americans%20Act/HAA_Section_by_Section.pdf</ref> |
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| − | Fines will be paid to the HHA of the State in which the person resides. That agency also may establish a procedure to waive the penalty if the penalty poses a hardship. Each State would determine appropriate mechanisms to enforce the requirement that individuals be enrolled.<ref> http://wyden.senate.gov/issues/Healthy%20Americans%20Act/HAA_Section_by_Section.pdf</ref>
| + | The law that was enacted replaced the state-based approach with a direct penalty to be paid to the United States. |
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| | ===Privacy Rights=== | | ===Privacy Rights=== |