Supreme Court will rule on constitutionality of healthcare law

[Jenna]

The fate of President Obama's landmark health care law likely will be decided Friday in an oak-paneled conference room adjoining the chambers of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

More here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...ote/53873778/1

[Odd]

What's your view on this, Jenna? Looks like it's going to be made into sausage, with winners all around in politics, but the rest of us with even less clarity than before. The individual mandate looks to be going down, which leaves a lot of other mandates in place. My mostly symbolic catastrophic policy has tripled since this passed. I may well be joining those ranks of uninsured if they split it down the middle.

[Jenna]

Looks like a real mess!

[Bjohnson63]

Regardless on whether you want this healthcare package or something like it, any sane person who has ever read the constitution should be able to recognize that a mandate that all persons alive must purchase healthcare is unconstitutional. There are definately good things in the law, but alot of bad, and its expensive. If you want to help curb costs, reform tort law so that doctors aren't scanning you for every ailment under the sun when all you have is a hang nail just to avoid getting sued.

I think the Supreme Court will shoot this down solely because of the mandate. If not, whats next? It would open the door for the govt to tell you to do anything, and purchase anything.

[Jks9199]

Regardless on whether you want this healthcare package or something like it, any sane person who has ever read the constitution should be able to recognize that a mandate that all persons alive must purchase healthcare is unconstitutional. There are definately good things in the law, but alot of bad, and its expensive. If you want to help curb costs, reform tort law so that doctors aren't scanning you for every ailment under the sun when all you have is a hang nail just to avoid getting sued.

I think the Supreme Court will shoot this down solely because of the mandate. If not, whats next? It would open the door for the govt to tell you to do anything, and purchase anything.

Yep. I don't see the mandate passing constitutional muster; it's just stretching the Commerce and General Welfare Clauses too far.

What I wonder about is whether a State could mandate it's residents and citizens to purchase health care insurance? If so -- I could see an angle where the feds could almost require it, through tying other funding to it, much like was done with the 55 MPH speed limit and the .08 BAC limit.

[Bjohnson63]

Yep. I don't see the mandate passing constitutional muster; it's just stretching the Commerce and General Welfare Clauses too far.

What I wonder about is whether a State could mandate it's residents and citizens to purchase health care insurance? If so -- I could see an angle where the feds could almost require it, through tying other funding to it, much like was done with the 55 MPH speed limit and the .08 BAC limit.

I don't think states could either.