NYT: Will Health Care Reform Survive the Courts?

[cbayer]

Good analysis of the current legal situation.

By PHILIP M. BOFFEY
Published: August 20, 2011

The legal battle over the constitutionality of the health care reform law will determine how far government can go in helping to improve people’s lives. Ultimately, the Supreme Court will have to decide this question. Until then, the pileup of lower federal court rulings — responding to some of the more than two dozen lawsuits filed against the law — is confusing and sharply divided, especially on the requirement that individuals buy or obtain health insurance or pay a penalty.

So far, six federal judges have ruled that this “individual mandate” is constitutional while five have found that it is not. (While most of those judges appointed by Republicans ruled against the mandate and most of the Democratic appointees upheld it, two judges broke away from the partisan pattern.) Two appellate courts — one in Cincinnati and one in Atlanta — have reached opposite conclusions. Three other cases are now awaiting appeals court decisions. Here is a scorecard of the rulings and trends emerging in the lower courts.

CONTESTED BATTLEGROUND The core fight is whether Congress, under its powers to regulate interstate commerce, can require people to buy private health insurance if they don’t want to. Although the law has many elements, the mandate is an important tool for reaching the goal of near-universal coverage — and needed to make health insurance reforms work.

The new law requires insurers to accept all applicants, even those with pre-existing conditions, and prohibits charging higher rates based on health status. Those highly popular changes will drive up premiums for private policies unless healthier people are forced to take out insurance, too. Without a mandate, many of those who lack insurance would typically end up with charity care (as they do now), where the costs are shifted to health care providers and taxpayers or are paid for through higher premiums for everyone else.

more at link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/opinion/sunday/will-health-care-reform-survive-the-courts.html

[Lunabelle]

1. I'm no lawyer

But I have always felt this part would be struck down as unconstitutional. What we really need is medicare for all.

[Firebrand Gary]

2. It should be upheld, if you follow precedent. However the recent GOP Judicial activism???

Who knows. The Republican party is tearing apart our country in any way they can. If they do not like the laws that govern them, they side step them.

It's the reason this administration is receiving unprecedented delays with their judicial nominees.

[Demeter]

3. Taking this Kludge and Corporate Giveaway Away in the Courts Is Our Only Hope

to get something worth the time and money.