Al's Opinions

There is a serious move afoot to challenge the constitutionality of an essential component of the new health care low.  The law requires everyone to purchase health insurance.  A federal judge has ruled that this requirement exceeds the power Congress has under the Interstate Commerce clause.  Congress does not have the power to require every person to engage in a particular contractual obligation.  The matter will be sent on to the Supreme Court for a final ruling.

The basic premise of the law was that health care was to be provided by insurance.  To achieve affordable rates, everyone must participate in the insurance pool.  If not, only the sick and those with probable sickness in the future will buy insurance.  No one will be able to afford the premiums.  The whole structure will fall.

One news commentator noted that if the "public option" had been included in the law, there would be no legal requirement for everyone to buy insurance.  Those who decline to buy insurance would instead join the "publilc option" group and pay into that.  The pool would be filled with a natural mix of healthy and not so healthy individuals.

Mr. Obama may now be wishing that he hadn't caved to the desires of the insurance lobby in discarding the public option.

Labels: " achieving a workable insurance pool, "public option, Universal health care