The individual health insurance mandate is constitutional, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday, upholding the central provision of President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act.
The 5-4 majority opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, upheld the mandate as a tax, although concluded it was not valid as an exercise of Congress’ commerce clause power. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined in the majority.
The decision in Florida v. Department of Health and Human Services comes as something of a surprise after the generally hostile reception the law received during the six hours of oral arguments held over three days in March. But by siding with the court’s four Democratic appointees, Chief Justice Roberts avoided the delegitimizing taint of politics that surrounds a party-line vote while passing Obamacare’s fate back to the elected branches. GOP candidates and incumbents will surely spend the rest of the 2012 campaign season running against the Supreme Court and for repeal of the law.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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39 Responses
All the more reason to vote OblameO and all socialist liberals OUT in November so Romney could STOP ObamaCare altogether!!
Of course Obama, Pelolsi, Reid, refused to call this a tax when they shoved it down our throats in middle of the night.
Gee…Obama may be a better Constitutional Lawyer than most of you would want to believe. He told you so! 🙂
Someone explain this to me “The court rejected the commerce clause argument, but ruled that Congress nevertheless had the power to impose the mandate because it can be considered a tax.”
THey say the mandate is illegal but since in essence its a tax, it’s ok.
Is there a free country left on this planet?
I might add…that YWN’s take on the story, as if the Chief Justice really voted the way he did only to avoid a “…taint of politics that surrounds a party-line vote while passing Obamacare’s fate back to the elected branches”…that “…GOP candidates and incumbents will surely spend the rest of the 2012 campaign season running against the Supreme Court and for repeal of the law”…and sounding as if Obama did not make tax argument….just oozes of resentment of a sore loser….AND runs quite contrary to other news stories and to fact.
Notice the stock market crashing
How apropriate that this should happen in tamuz.anyone happy about this is either blissfully uninformed or a full fledged rasha .
All the noshim tzidkoniyos baking challah today can use their egg brushes to help shmear the egg all over the faces of all those who put their faith in the conservative majority supreme court & not in the “supreme” leader of the world. AL TIVTICHU B’NIDIVIM!!!!
Mark Levin…you who was so sure that “Obama The Red” wouldn’t win in 2008…and who was so certain that the Court would find “Obamacare” to be an unconstitutional affront to all that is decent in the world……perhaps should seriously considfer the vbery real possibility that Obama will, IY”H, win in 2012. 🙂
All the more reason to get out of this insane country and make aliyah. Israel may be run by socialist chilonim like Obama, but at least the power of Torah and the influence of the talmidei chachamim is increasing And that IS our country, and the ideological fights ARE our fights. And b’ezras HaShem we know that the koach haTorah, the koach haTefillah, the koach haTeshuva, the birth rate of the shomrei Torah u’mitzvos are ALL in our favor. America elected a socialist who is weakening this country militarily, economically, morally, socially — b’kitzur in just about every way. It’s time to take whatever we have left before it’s all sucked up by a socialist machine siphoning off our hard-earned assets, and get out of here. Mi l’HaShem elai!
Does anyone know how USA has money for such a project?
We are in 15 trillion dollar debt already.
EVERYONE LOOK AT GREECE AND YOU WILL SEE WHERE USA IS HEADED!
ArmedJew, Congress is granted multiple sources of authority by the Constitution. One of those sources is the Commerce Clause, and another is the Taxing and Spending Clause. The clauses may overlap in some areas, but each allows Congress to act independent of the other. The Court held that Congress’ Commerce power cannot uphold the mandate, while the Taxing power can uphold it.
See? Rule of law saved.
Dear Kafoy Tova,
B”H and Oy Lanu at the same time that we are so comfortable to repudiate the country that protects us. R’ Shimon Bar Yochai had to hide in a cave for saying a lot less. Please Please Please be aware that this is a public forum
Gee…the United States is the only rich country in the world without universal health care…Eretz Yisroel has tax funded universal health care…and you ignorant brightlights out there decry this as if it’s the end of civilization. Daya zogger goes so far as to say only one blissfully ignorant or a rasha could support this decision. What’s wrong with you? You guys are an embarrassment.
AvrahamYishai – I am curious if you knew that in Israel all people are required by law to have health insurance, which is socialized there. I think a few of your comments are somewhat ironic in light of this fact.
This is probably a blessing in disguise. All this has done is inflame and invigorate the GOP and Tea Party. Think Scott Brown.
If you want this law repealed all you have to do is send the White House photos of all our Lakewood Kollel guys sitting, learning and being covered by their parent’s insurance. If Obama thought that this was in any way good for frum Jews he would lead the charge himself to repeal it.
1. If the government takes your money, it’s a tax. No hiddush. That’s what governments do.
2. What happens if many people can’t afford the mandatory level of insurance? This is probably the plan, since the next step would be to require all insurance companies to offer the mandatory level at a low price, thereby forcing private companies out of the business and allowing for a socialized medicine system in which medical care is a government monopoly (such as first class mail, fire fighting, interstate highways).
ChaimShamayim – you ask “Does anyone know how USA has money for such a project?”
Silly question…society will pay for it the same way it pays for fire protection, health departments, immigration, judges, police, flu shots, the Air Force, student transportation, Pell Grants, airport operations, sanitation, Section 8, medical research, bus passes, taxi regulation, highway engineers, selective service boards, school lunch programs, subway maintenance, meat inspections, kosher enforcement, building inspections, social welfare assisdtance, food stamps, prisons, public hospitals, hoped for school vouchers, crossing guards, emergency room care for the uninsured, street paving, pot hole repairs, student loan subsidies, rental assistance, FHA homeowner insurance, etc, etc, etc…
B”H there are 5 members of the supreme court who are conncerned with what is best for the American people and not their political party.
Today is a great day for the United States.
YonasonW ,are you aware that 90 % of new drugs and procedures originate in the profit driven us healthcare system.?now that is all at risk.the hundreds of thousands who come here for life saving treatments not provided in their socialist healthcare countries of origin?are you aware of the mediaire cost effectivness board included in obamacare which will decide which seniors get life saving treatments ?.are you aware of the mandates forcing us to bay for unlimted abortions?if the answer to these quistions is no than your glee can be described as blissfull ignorance.if one doesknow and still supports this law,he is nothing short of evil.
YonasonW: Who is funding this ?
The money Printers?
If the “Law” is that its a tax, can’t congress (which is politically conservative) just vote the tax away?
M:
I am acutely aware that Israel has a socialized medical system. I’m not sure about you, but I in fact am an Israeli citizen, and have children who study in Israel and serve in the IDF. So yes, I have some skin in the game. To that position which says, “Well socialized medicine works in Israel; it can work in America, too,” look at the facts. The two cases are not at all comparable.
1) Israel is a population of 6 million citizens. That is smaller than most healthcare service providers (like Aetna, Humana, Blue Cross/Blue Shield);
2) A sizable portion of Israel’s healthcare service providers come to the country for ideological reasons — religious, spiritual, Zionist, to escape persecution, etc. That means that a large section of their talent pool already comes educated, trained, certified, and experienced. It does not have to be groomed locally through K-12 education, college, med school, etc. I.e. the Israeli medical industry is already getting a vast chunk of its talent at relatively little or no cost.
3) As you probably know, medical professionals in Israel are not the top wage earners. The local handyman probably makes as much as, if not more than, the neighborhood family doctor. I don’t have exact figures, but I’m fairly certain that the head of Hadassah’s Department fo Cardiolody is making A LOT LESS than his counterpart at the Mayo Clinic.
4) Malpractice, as an industry, is practically non-existenent in Israel.
5) Impact of the military: In Israel, the majority of the population performs compulsory military service. In the US, it’s 5%. That means that a significant portion of the healthcare costs in Israel are borne by the Defense establishment — certainly for the 3 years of compulsory service, then for 10% of the year during Miluim (Reserve duty) from age 21 – 55. A corollary to that is the fact that, due to the shared military burden, Israelis have a higher standard of healthfulness to maintain military readiness.
So yes, M, I’ve thought about this in great detail. Have you?
YonasonW, 0bama explicitly denied that it was a tax. Congress did not treat it as a tax bill; it would never have passed as one. But now Roberts, after having originally voted against the mandate, decided that it’s not up to Congress whether something is a tax or not, and this has the waddles and quacks like a tax even though Congress called it a penalty, which it would not have the power to impose.
The real upshot of this decision, though, is that the Court upheld the action/inaction distinction. The commerce clause does not enable Congress to order people who are not engaging in commerce to do so.
Moose613, judges are not supposed to be concerned with “what is best for the American people”. They’re supposed to be concerned only with what is the law. If the law is bad, that’s not their business.
#22, since when is Congress politically conservative? The Democrats have 53 senators.
YonassonW – Let me guess, are you one of those people that is on every program out there as well as getting free health insurance? Sure sounds like it. HOWEVER, let me just tell you, as someone that MUST pay for his own health insurance that the result of this, ironically named “affordable care act”, makes it almost impossible for me to afford it. I just got a letter the other day telling me that my family Insurance will go up by 46%. That means that approx 25% of my salary will go towards insurance. Do you have any idea why that is??? Its because of A – the freeloaders who get free insurance and max out every benefit they can – it is free after all. I personally know someone who is getting stomach banding surgery (to the tune of $20,000) for free since they are on public insurance. Meanwhile, I had to pay $1500 out of pocket for a procedure that my doctor thought was necessary but the insurance company did not. And B – because now, even children up to 26 are insured under their parents. That means that the insurance companies are not going to get the premiums of that demographic, and as a result, WE have to pay for them too.
Also, let me make it very clear, this is not really the same as “socialized medicine” because it is not being provided to EVERYONE by the government. Instead, it is saying that EVERYONE must purchase it if they don’t qualify.
Bottom line is, the black plague and the rest of the Dems are making it less and less attractive for people to be gainfully employed. Why would anybody want to go to work when they can have FREE housing, foodstamps, healthcase etc. Since these beneficiaries are becoming a major portion of this country, they don’t care if the rest of us dumb shlubs have to pay increasing “taxes”, sooner or later we will probably join the ranks.
BUT, the most dangerous element in this twisted puzzle are people like you who praise the insane policies. You simply don’t realize that the money to pay for all of these programs comes from people who pay taxes. As the percentage of the population, that is actually working, shrinks, so does the pool of funds. Eventually, there will be nowhere else to take/borrow from. Then WHAT???
0bama said it wasn’t a tax. The Supreme Court says he lied.
0bama’s pledge not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $250K. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8erePM8V5U
good point milhouse
btw the Tea Party saw this for what it was right at the start (they named themselves the Tea Party after the famous Tea Party which was “no taxation without representation”
to #23 Avram Yishay:
I’m really happy for you that you didn’t have any family members experience trial and expiremental medication for the smallest of diseases which caused them to roller coaster into all kinds of affects and sicknesses. And which caused them to have to wait for weeks and months and years for anybody to look at them and ultimately died from stuff that were curable all over the world. I’m really happy for you that you never had a baby like my friends that was born with a common heart defect and needed to be operated within three months of birth but was #60 on the list and sefardi. And by the time she turned 6 months her heart gave up; where in columbian presbetarian they would do it within three weeks of birth as I witnessed with a family member. I’m really happy that you didn’t have to pay 350 dollars to go to Hadassah Ein Karem’s private clinic and to wait and to arrive to a dr. that did no physical checkup on you just looked at the computer like any other doctor in the world and sent me to the general labratory where all israeli meuchedet insurance holders/all israeli citizens go to. waited on line with the rest of the citizens and basically paid for a private doctor for what? when this dr. has a bunch of nurses on the same hospital floor roaming around and for the pay for a private dr. i couldn’t get one nurse to draw my blood privately. You must’ve made aliya this year or else you might be one of those die hard dishonest mizrachim that despite being kicked out of gush katif and the Ulpana and all the backstabbing that you end up getting from the government, still kiss up to them and forget who your good friends are. Fact of the matter, my grandmother died in Montreal last year and even the nurses felt bad for her and said: “that’s the system”. America’s private system is what made it great. It was like a business where doctors would compete to advance. Yes, normal healthcare coverage needed to be arranged for all. But not this, this is for a communistic nation like Israel; and by the way I live here and I’m not a zealot. But slowly slowly even those that once kissed this flag are learning that the only way to stay sane here is to remember and connect with its holiness. Please look at the level the doctors are treated by patients in israel; that’s because they are a nobody. Please please do me a favor and daven real real hard that you should never need to the favors of any hostpitals or big doctors here. Only for birth which I think would apply to your wife anyway.
Avram Yishay:
please please please!!!!!!!!!!! Do not compare Hadassah Ein Karem to the Mayo Clinic?!?!
Daya zogger –
You sound like an ideological propagandist…just like the leftists – your statements are full of unsupported conclusions, repeated blogisms and just plain untruths.
I think you’d benefit from looking at the following information on satisfaction with healthcare systems by country:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,136990,00.html
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/4/07-050401-table-T1.html
http://www.gallup.com/poll/8056/healthcare-system-ratings-us-great-britain-canada.aspx
Also, according to the WHO the United States ranks thirteenth in world pharmeceutical production by value but ranks fourth in the volume of pharmaceuticals produced…See http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Js6160e/3.html
You fail to address at all the problem of people who cannot get insurance, the uniqueness of this country in that regard, nor do you recognize that the access to great healthcare in the United States is limited to those who can pay for it…even many employer based plans, such as my own “unsustainable socialist anti-Torah lazy freeloading government employee health plan,” would not grant one access to high-end medical treatment.
To me, and I think most on the “liberal” side of this issue, I have no problem with a market, non-socialist economy…BUT, to paraphrase a recent New York article….to emake health insurance an earned privilege is to condemn people to physical suffering or even death because they failed to secure a job that gives them health insurance. And most of you right wing whiners are either too young to need much healthcare…or have insurance and don’t care if others don’t.
YonasoonW – Bet you dont run a business or pay taxes
Working on it…I showed your entry to a professional colleague who knows more about insurance than I ever would care to know. She says that all rates are going up now, but that when the economies of scale realized by the mandate kick in they should go down…and that you are a prototypical person…if you will no longer be able to afford insurance…that the new law is designed to help.
I know a 48 year old Yid who’s truck driver and who says he’s paying $320/month for insurance in NJ…ithat information helps at all.
Finally, I have to say that your name-calling of me is silly and rather childish. I happen to be a management level law enforcement attorney who is enjoying a day off to do house repairs, and who, I would hedge to guess, works many more hours than do many of you…and who maintains a daily learning seder. I worked myself through law school and have always work hard.
I wish you the best.
Dear Miriamlu:
My heart goes out to you. First of all, let me clarify that I am not at all pro-Socialized medicine. I agree with you 100% that privatized medicine is best, and in fact the solution to America’s healthcare quandaries are not in more socialized medical policies, but rather a host of regulatory changes that expand portability, open the industry to more competition, enhancing the healthcare savings account system, and tort reform.
As to your other issues, I am not a Mizrachnik; I’m chassidic. I made aliyah back in 1990.
I compared Hadassah to Mayo because my cousin is actually one of the senior Cardiologists at Hadassah, and was also the Head of Cardiology (not at Mayo, but another top tier hospital).
May the Ribono shel Olam send a refuah shleimah lach btoch sha’ar cholei Yisrael!
ChaimShamayim, I hope you were being sarcastic. The stock market was down slightly, but it certainly didn’t crash. Many healthcare stocks rose, presumably because there will be more healthcare consumers.
YonasonW, your truck driver friend has a bargain. In New York, I’m self-employed and paying over $1600 for family coverage. Last year, my medical expenses were more than half of my adjusted gross income. And no, we didn’t have any major medical catastrophes.
YonasonW,throwing out completley irellevent links won’t change the facts that you are supporting a policy that will cripple new inovations in medicine ,spike premium rates for everyone,fund abortion as birth control ,and enforce euthasia not to mention bankrupt our counry.you accuse me of not caring for the uninsured,however that’s not what we are disscussing,but rather if this disaterous evil bill is worthy of support.I said earlier that anyone suppoerting this is either unaware or a rasha.since you qoute (what seems to be) the ny times as a credible source,I will be “dan lekaf zechus”that you are just woefully unaware.wake up my friend, jewish livesare at stake.