It seems that the most controversial issue surrounding the upcoming health insurance reform laws is the one that requires all Americans to purchase health insurance in 2014. There have been several court cases questioning the legality, and the constitutionality, of this mandatory requirement. A judge in Virginia has decided, in the most recent court case, that this requirement is unconstitutional.
Federal Judge Henry E. Hudson has declared that the requirement that all Americans must purchase health insurance in 2014, something that is a large part of how the reforms that are a part of the Affordable Health Care Act are supposed to be able to function, is unconstitutional. He made this decision after hearing the most recent court case on this topic, which took place in Virginia.
Judge Hudson ruled that Congress has exceeded it’s power by mandating that everyone must have health insurance. Judge Hudson said that the core argument in this case, and in the other similar cases has to do with an individual’s right to participate, (or, one could infer, to choose not to participate). He did not feel that the main dispute was about regulating the insurance business, or even about creating a scheme of universal health coverage. Basically, what the Judge is saying is that the “big idea” here is about individual rights, not about whether or not the insurance business needs to be regulated, or about if Americans would benefit from a universal form of health insurance and health care.
This judgement is opposite to the decision of U.S. District Judge George Steeh, who decided earlier this year in a case brought by the Thomas More Law Center, in Michigan, that the mandatory health insurance requirement was, in fact, constitutional. Judge Steeh felt that the requirement that all Americans purchase health insurance falls under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. He felt that it would be impossible for an individual to choose not to participate, at all, in the health care system, because, in short, everyone is going to get sick sometimes.
These kinds of court cases are going to go back and forth for a while, as do all court cases that involve a lot of people, and that are controversial in nature. The decision by Judge Hudson is the most recent decision on the constitutionality of the requirement that every American buy health insurance in 2014. I do not expect that this will be the last court case about this part of the Affordable Care Act.
Image by Jason Taellious on Flickr