Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Mandate

[mlmpetert]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

@mlmpetert,

This is a really good way to frame the discussion. Good questions. Some I've considered but mostly on the pro-side. Before I delve into my answer(s), I just want to correct one or two things you said and then take a step back to help understand "Obamacare" from a slightly different angle.

It's not a bill. It's the law of the land and has been for two years. I know you know that, but it makes a difference in terms of how we discuss and/or debate the law. Once we peel back the term "Obamacare" for a second and call it by it's proper name, The Patient's Bill of Rights/Affordable Care Act, that too makes a huge difference. Most people hear "Obamacare" and immediately certain images, right or wrong, pop into their heads. For the sake of our discussion, Obamacare is fine. Just wanted to point that out.

Secondly, this law doesn't cover ALL Americans. It covers approximately 30 million (revised number per CBO). That's it. No undocumented immigrants and no one gets free medical care. No free rides. Period. That said, all Americans insurance plans aren't directly affected by this law. So most of what we're debating isn't what falls under the Patient Bill of Rights Act portion, because if we go point by point, the vast majority of people here -- left and right -- would agree with most of those rights. What we're debating is the individual mandate. Correct? The idea that those who *don't* have insurance should. Okay, that sounds pretty libertarian to me. Pull your own weight, pal. Is that an expansion of the social safety net. Sure. But it's also an economic imperative. Too much of the nations debt, too much of our GDP is driven by healthcare costs. It's ludicrous to say you're a fiscal hawk and want to do absolutely nothing about our broken healthcare system. It doesn't make moral sense or fiscal sense.

And to that end, I absolutely agree with the court's decision. Whether it falls under the Commerce Clause or the Congress' taxing authority is besides the point in my opinion. It's the law of the land. It was the right thing to do. Republicans believed so in the 90s, Democrats got it passed in the 2000s. This wasn't a unique idea. This wasn't some new radical Obama agenda. Both parties have embraced the idea of universal healthcare at one time or another. The political will power just wasn't there in the past. This time is was and the Supreme Court validated the law passed by the other two branches of government. So you have ALL three branches on the same page regarding a Republican concept.

In terms of Nanny State and redistribution of wealth. I touched on this earlier. There are no giveaways under this law. You can't give me one example, under this law, of "free health insurance". In fact, you appear to contradicting yourself. You say Congress is forcing people to buy insurance, then you turnaround and call it free and wealth distribution. Which is it? There are some tax credits for lower income families who decide to purchase insurance. That's hardly Nanny state. I've yet to see a definitive argument that explains how this is redistribution of wealth. I'm open ears if you want to take a stab it.

The Supreme Court limited the Medicaid provision of the law, basically giving the states ability to deny funding or opt out. In some cases I don't think it's a wise move, but I can live with states making decisions based on the needs of the people and not politics. My biggest concern is how do we address cost containment. I've neither read nor heard anything that says with certainty that costs will come down dramatically because of the law. It's an imperfect law with room for improvement. Just like Social Security and other social programs that passed in their original form. It will be a lot better in the coming years.

12th, my bad in not responding to you sooner. I honestly appreciate you taking the time to voice your thoughts, of which I enjoyed hearing.

I used to like these political threads because they moved slowly and allowed me to hear things I normally wouldn’t, think about things in a thoughtful way, and have informative debate less focused on opinion and more focused on reason. In addition, of course, to calling out and making fun of politicians and their often ridiculous policies. Not saying that isnt true anymore, but for me some of these threads move too fast to keep up with in a casual manor. Not sure if ive changed or if these political threads turn into 15 pages faster than they used too.

When I was putting my post togather asking for your thoughts I literally started typing out Affordable Care Act (I was still gonna call it a bill though), but I just couldn’t do it. The works of Ayn Rand popped into my head and I became even more disgusted with our political system than I normally am. Weve all been hearing about the impending expiration of The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (aka The Bush Tax Cuts), which just like ObamaCare and depending on the person or context can be viewed in opposite extremes. I wonder if Bush or Obama was thinking of Rand’s Equalization of Opportunity Act when they signed their respective bills? So while our populist jargon may do more to conjure up emotion than fact i got to think its much better than deceptive names decided for us, no matter your side of the aisle.

Honestly my biggest issues with The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act To Save Your Mom’s Life isn’t the forced participation (aka individual mandate). It’s the complexity and length of the law. Like most I don’t know much about the law, its hard to understand because its hard as hell to figure out the particulars of it. And in my opinion transparency is the most important thing in a good law, even if its not…. I guess that’s the emotion before reason political ideology im guilty of. But while I am the type of person that says pull your own weight, I will admit that youre more than right in that pulling your own weight in terms of healthcare costs has become a fiscal burden and drag on others/our economy. But im not too sure Obamacare fixes that?

And im not too sure you do either as our biggest concern is shared; how do we address cost containment. This is a huge issue and what I thought the bill was supposed to fix (in addition to saving our moms). I mean me and you are expecting healthcare costs to continue to rise. And while actuarial tables may say more people = less risk/average cost, elementary school tables say more people covered also equal higher total costs (even if the average is less). I just don’t see how this ends well. At some point the actuary’s "proverbial" (sounds ridiculous right?) slide rule breaks.

But while ill say thats my biggest concern its only my biggest concern when it comes to this bill…err law of the land. Obviously that’s the case with most people, but this law has kind of broken politics for me. I just think people are getting too worked up about things that are out of their control.

Don’t get me wrong I still care and like to follow politics and their affects/effects on the world. And I still thoroughly believe that progressivism is a cancer and acts as democracies only kryptonite. If people can vote to entitle themselves to stuff then its only a matter of time. Sadly progressivism is a cancer that even Obamacare cant cure. But I now realize that carcinogens/progressivism is something that democracies allow for. So while getting cancer sucks its also inevitable.