[acb-diabetics] Fd. judge up holds individual mandate...

[Patricia LaFrance-Wolf]

Federal Judge Upholds Individual Mandate in Healthcare Reform Law

 

US District Judge George Steeh, in Detroit, Michigan, ruled that the
nation's constitution permits the federal government to require individuals
to obtain

health insurance coverage as part of the historic Affordable Care Act
(ACA)....

 

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Steeh is the first judge to rule on the constitutionality of the law but he
will not be the last. Similar to plaintiffs in the other lawsuits, the
Thomas

More Law Center contends that the federal government has no constitutional
right to compel individuals to obtain health insurance or to penalize them
for

not doing so. In essence, the center says, the ACA is an attempt to regulate
not just individual activity but also individual inactivity, which opens the

door to a complete loss of freedom. 

 

The government has argued that it is legally operating under the
constitution's commerce clause, which authorizes it to regulate interstate
commerce. According

to the federal brief, the individual mandate addresses a problem in the
interstate market of healthcare created by people who forgo insurance. The
cost

of care that many of these individuals receive free of charge from hospitals
and physicians gets shifted to providers, insurers, governments, and in the

end, insured individuals and taxpayers, disrupting the marketplace, the
government states.

 

Steeh agreed with the government's arguments about the commerce clause in
his ruling today and also upheld the constitutionality of the penalty that
individuals

must pay for not obtaining insurance coverage.

 

Legal experts predict that no matter who wins or loses, the ACA lawsuits
filed in various federal district courts will make their way to the US
Supreme

Court.

 

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