With two federal judges now saying it’s unconstitutional to force Americans to buy health insurance, and two others saying it’s fine, you’ve got to wonder if there isn’t a better way.
Or at least, a less constitutionally controversial way. Right or wrong (I think it wrong), the latest ruling tosses out the entire health care law because one element of it supposedly violates limits on congressional power.
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson of Pensacola, Fla., said there’s no way for him to excise the insurance mandate and leave the rest of the law intact.
If his decision holds, out goes coverage for pre-existing conditions and affordable insurance even if you lose your job. Certain preventative medicine programs would go, too, as would everything else aimed at fixing the health care crisis in this country.
So while Vinson’s ruling and the other three make their way through appellate courts and head for a Supreme Court showdown, consider what would happen if his opinion is upheld and the whole law is struck down.
The budget deficit would grow by $145 billion from next year through 2019, and $230 billion through 2021. It would cost more, not less, to get rid of the law, the Congressional Budget Office says.
On a human scale, 32 million nonelderly people covered under the new law would have no insurance without it, according to the CBO.
Ah, but for those fortunate enough to keep insurance, some would see premiums drop. And yet for others it would cost more because they wouldn’t have the subsidies the law would have given them.
For all the political advantage Republicans have so far won by attacking the health care law, the day may come when they wish they hadn’t. •
Ann Woolner is a Bloomberg News columnist.
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