Is this bill,if passed as is in the Senate, going to get court challenges?

[county worker]

I think yes.

Is the mandate constitutional.

Can government call benefits income and tax them? If so what does that do to unions who gave concessions to get benefits? Does this bill codify as law that benefits are income or that some benefits are income. That means your employer can offer you $50,000K a year and pay you that amount less the cost of benefits. As benefit costs rise your salary is reduced by an equal amount while the taxes will remain the same.

[cayanne]

1. Yes but....

The courts won't rule against it. The mandate is probably as legal as the mandate for car insurance per media constitutional attys I've been listening to.

However, this bill still needs to go to conference committees to reconcile with the House version then be voted on again by both houses. At that point it can still be filibustered.

[area51]

2. I'm no lawyer,

but I would think this can/will be legally challenged. The problem with the argument referring to car insurance, is that a) technically one doesn't have to drive a car; b) states mandate this, not the feds; c) you only are required to buy liability, not "full insurance" (not sure of the correct term), which pays for the damage to the other party involved in any accident. This is completely different in that it's an effective tax -- paid to unregulated (for all intents and purposes) private, for-profit companies, something which no other country does -- just for being alive here in the U.S.

[cayanne]

4. I agree with you

I'm just saying what Constitutional scholars and attys said on the MSM. CNN's Jeffrey Toobin comes to mind as one of them. Toobin did not compare car insurance mandates to health insurance mandates though, that was my comparison.

[Bitwit1234]

3. Regardless of whether it is legal the republicans

are going to file law suit after law suit after law suit. They couldn't stop it any other way, and since their buddies own the Supreme Court, they think they will rule favorite ly on every one of their challenges.

[Thickasabrick]

5. There are already websites that are gearing up for Class Action Suits

as soon as it passes. Stay tuned.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. Have mandates been challenged in Massachusetts yet?

and if so, what has been the outcome? :shrug: IF mandates are struck down, then how will we be able to bring down costs- if enough healthy people don't start paying into the system?

[county worker]

7. I don't think we are against paying into the system. We just don't want the system run by for

insurance companies.

The idea that you will be breaking the law if you don't give up part of your income to the very group that are causing the problem makes me see red.


You are already paying in to the system of medicare. Increase the eligibility of that system to all of us and increase the amount you pay.

Anything else is just a method of making corporations more wealthy and giving them more power over your life. We don't need no stinking insurance companies!

[Proud Liberal Dem]

8. We need a massive campaign to restore confidence in government

The public, since Reagan, has been conditioned/brainwashed into believing that "government is the problem, not the solution" and have come to believe that the private sector will be there for them and be able to do "the job" *better* than the government/non-profit sector- despite the MASSIVE evidence to the contrary. The other problem is that, except when Clinton was POTUS, the way the Repubs have run the government, the government has basically been run into the ground and shown not to be able to function like it should. Until people understand that the government is not the enemy and the Dems start standing up for government intervention, then getting more public acceptance for more New Deal/Great Society-style government programs, is going to be difficult if not impossible IMHO. This isn't to say that we should just accept what is being put into place as we speak and STFU but we should find ways to make government intervention more palatable among the public and work to elect leaders whom want smart and effective government.
Contrary to popular opinion, I personally believe that requiring everybody to purchase private insurance could end up being private insurers' worst nightmare as they are REALLY going to have show some results or risk a tremendous blacklash (i.e. lower prices, more coverage). If they don't deliver, a backlash against them could actually prove to be a tremendous shot in the arm in the movement towards the creation of a government plan.