Regional news: 
The individual mandate is constitutional
Bob Graham is executive editor at Insurance & Financial Advisor and IFAwebnews.com.
At the Huffington Post, David Orentlicher, co-director of the Hall Center for Law and Health at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, says an individual mandate to purchase health insurance is constitutional. He makes his case in this essay.
3 Responses
- tony o. Says:
December 16th, 2009 at 1:28 pmOrenlicher’s entire premise is bogus. He claims that Congress has the right to regulate interstate commerce such as insurance — which it does — and then he goes on to say that therefore Congress can mandate that all Americans buy health insurance.
Congress can only regulate those activities in which Americans participate in…the Constitution does not allow Congress to FORCE individuals to participate in an activity and then, therefore, tax them.
And his claim that Medicare is required of all Americans is true. However, that is also unconstitutional…something that has never stopped Congress in the past. - Tom H Says:
December 16th, 2009 at 5:42 pmHow can Orenlicher say this? The Constitution was written as a structure for the government and what they were required to do. If you read it, it was not written as a structural guide to regulate the citizens of the United States. I would like for Orenlicher to show how and where the Constitution forces someone like Congress to mandate the purchase of “health insurance”. It was definitely not the intention of “Our Founders” to threaten the citizens with prison and “monetary penalities” for not having health insurance.
- vince phillips Says:
December 17th, 2009 at 6:00 amI think fiat (‘because they can’) has a lot to do with it added to some in Congress’ belief that we elected them to create utopian fantasies or to craft social experiments without a grounding in the realities of making a payroll or of paying for costs that are incurred. Constitutionally, there is a section about powers belonging to the states (and the people) unless otherwise specified but we the people have unfortunately acquiesced in the federal Government taking power…whether through nationalizing GM or taking over American health care which they already largely done
