The Wall Street Journal has published several editorials questioning the legality of legislation that would require Americans to purchase 
healthcare insurance or face penalties. These editorials as well as the lead article in the December 2009 issue of Health Freedom Watch were all penned by noted legal minds. The attorneys general of South Carolina, Florida and a handful of other states have also questioned the constitutionality of the federal healthcare bill, differing versions of which have passed the U.S. House and Senate.Even the Congressional Budget Office has weighed in, stating: “A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action. The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.”
The analyses reach the following conclusions:
- Congress does not have the constitutional power to pass this mandate into federal law. The Constitution provides for Congress to tax and spend, and to regulate interstate commerce — period. The authors of both “Why the Health Care Bills Are Unconstitutional,” published in the Wall Street Journal and “Why the Personal Mandate to Buy Health Insurance Is Unprecedented and Unconstitutional,” in Health Freedom Watch, cite federal cases stating that the courts have never sanctioned Congress to usurp other powers. (It is interesting to note that even in time of war, Congress has never claimed the power to force Americans to purchase anything.)
- The deals cut to benefit the states of senators and representatives whose votes were being sought violate the constitutional concept of “legislation for the general welfare.”
- This legislation — which requires certain actions by the states, including benefit exchanges in violation of the federal-state form of government described by our Constitution — tramples upon states’ rights.
At a time when vested and political interests appear to be manipulating Congress, let’s all vow to support the continued protection of our healthcare freedom of choice as well as every other freedom we hold dear.
No it is not constitutional at all. I do not have insurance nor do i want thier insurance. I pay out of pocket for a naturopath, take care of myself etc. I purchase high quality organic food only, never eat processed food. If i get cancer i will not get chemo/radiation/drugs. I will seek natural treatments and pay for it myself. This is an obamonation!!!!! Pun intended. I guess i will sue if they try to put me in jail. I will not pay thier fines either. If everyone did what i do and intend to do we wouldn’t have this problem.
ditto! My sentiments exactly.
What is the difference between being required to have auto insurance and being required to have health insurance?
We have mandatory health insurance in Massachusetts. They say the National one will be similar to our plan. Let me tell you it is great!! Before the plan, it was cost prohibitive for individuals/self-employed to buy into insurance plans (i.e. Blue Cross). After the mandatory plan, it is no more expensive than what someone would pay monthly working for a large employer/corporation. It is not free, But it is affordable.
This may in fact bring down the cost of health care since the insured will not be paying for the uninsured. Everyone will be paying. There are still safety nets for those at, or near, poverty.
Wow, that is interesting. I did not know any states had mandatory health insurance. Wonder why no one is reporting how good it is working out. Guess they prefer promoting fear. I thought it sounded similar to the car insurance thing myself.
Bogus reasoning. No one is required to drive or own a car and “mandated” car insurance is not forced. You get a fine (state) if CAUGHT driving without and the cost of car insurance is VERY low and based on your driving record/ age/ and area risk and value of car. Med pay in insurance is quite cheap also for similar coverage for accidents. I get $300,000 in coverage for medical for $60 per year. “Health” insurance is NOT insurance, has nothing to do with health and forces anyone using it to submit to invasive and drug treatments which do more harm than good, and no way is it affordable for anyone. Why should I be forced to pay for services (medical/drug) that are dangerous to me, that I don’t want and do not need? The cheapest plan I can get is $200 per month with a $5000 deductible for medical and drug treatments only. I stay healthy by avoiding doctors/drugs, eating mostly organic, avoiding toxins such as contained in processed foods and cleansers, seeking regular chiro and acupuncture and taking appropriate supplements. This regimen costs less than $100 per month and at 62, I’m healthier than most at age 30, and have overcome the damage medical treatments caused up to 10 years ago (developed bone loss thru Fosamax, liver and colon damage from various prescribed drugs for nonexistent and misdiagnosed “disease” among others). HANDS OFF MY HEALTH, CONGRESS, OBAMA AND OTHER DO GOODERS!
people should not be forced into insurance, especially when they can not afford it!!! forcing will on a person is unethical and criminal!!!
I think it is time that this is made public and sent to all TV stations as a “paid political announcement” and placed in all newspapers!
I do not want any type of healthcare that would mean I would be forced into a system that gives me no choice and forces me into treatments I do not want because I do not believe all the hype about its being good for me.
I would like a healthcare system that genuinely promises me a choice. I would like a healthcare system that gives EQUAL consideration to all manner of medicine including alternative complementary medicine with allopathic being included but rather than being the first and only choice, it would be as a last resort. All manner of prevention would be offered and encouraged to be considered individually. This would be true integrated medicine. That’s the only kind I would want.
I do not want more of the same which would force me into preventive actions based on the allopathic model. Thank you.
I so agree! It is frightening to contemplate a situation where all people must place themselves under the care of big pharma… and pay to do so… even if their religion is against it.
The land of the free may soon become the land where the over medicated versus the criminally healthy rebels. Perhaps it already has. It is insane. Our government, financial and health systems are on fire with lies and half truths. Untruth is unreality and unreality is literally insanity.
As an American citizen, Congress should not be allowed to mandate that I buy health insurance or else face penalties. This would be unconstitutional and unlawful.
Consider for a moment a situation in which an entity like a Pharmaceutical, food, insurance (or other) Corporation has heavily invested in a product and needs to generate a substantial profit despite the problem that it may not serve the general good as well as some other competitive product. This Corporation however, has contributed heavily to the current administration in power and so petitions the members of congress to require the public to buy their product. Legislation allowing the government to mandate the purchase of any product would utterly demolish innovation and creativity and ultimatly dismantle our free market economy. It must never be allowed for any reason.
You have done an excellent job of following the money trail; could it be followed to it’s ultimate greedy recipient?
We might ask why one could be forced to purchase “health care” insurance when there is in fact no “health care” in this country. What we have is “sickness care”. First you have to be sick before anyone pays anything. I pay for medicare (I am 72), but medicare paid me nothing in 2009. They didn’t pay me more in 2008. Yes, I spent money, but it was for ‘preventative medicine’. That’s not covered. The good side is that I was not sick. The big question is, “why am I paying for nothing?”.
This is not only illegal but it is a scandal. Our members of Congress seem to think that they are above the law and that their constituents have no voice in the whole process.
According to the US Constitution, Congress is FORBIDDEN to mandate Americans to purchase health insurance, as health insurance cannot be passed on, as other type policies. Health insurance is not covered under the “interstate commerce” clause in the Constitution; thus, mandating citizens to buy health insurance is UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Therefore, this mandate MUST be removed from the health care bill.
Constitutionality aside, forcing citizens – including employers – to purchase health insurance or face financial penalties is a non-starter. This would only increase the percentage of uninsured; as, employers would be compelled to drop coverage for their employees due to high costs. Therefore, such a mandate is DISASTROUS and is NOT health care reform.
My wife lost her job. The cost to put her on my insurance is almost $400.00/mo. I can not pay my bills now. What makes you think I can pay for a mandatory coverage. I guess I’ll be taking care of the governments three squares and a cot program.
Unfortunately for us, the final decision as to whether or not something is Constitutional lies with the Supreme Court. Our Constitution granted the Supreme Court the sole power to interpret the Constitution that granted it that power.
Check your dictionary. The definition of a democracy is a form of government where supreme power is vested in the hands of the people, not in the hands of an unelected supreme court. And if this was a republic, we’d have a way to hold our elected officials accountable during their terms of office so that we could exercise our will through them. The Constitution granted Congress the sole right to hold Members of Congress accountable, so we’re neither a democracy nor a republic.
What we are is an oligarchy, a corporate tyranny. It is time to stop asking Congress to represent us, when they can’t stay in office unless they represent the corporations that fund their campaigns, and to stop allowing unelected officials to decide what is Constitutional and what isn’t. Our Constitution isn’t Constitution, and by failing to vest power in the hands of the people, it failed to promote the general welfare and kept power in the hands of the oligarchs who wrote it.
The oligarchs who wrote the Constitution were not “We the People,” they were we the ruling class. We the people had no seat at the table and no voice. Slaves were represented by their owners, women were represented by their fathers or husbands, and workers were represented by their employers. When suffrage was extended it was merely the right to vote for the oligarch of your choice, without any way to hold them accountable once we’d voted for them. Nor is our vote the final say–it can be ignored as it was in 2000. In most cases our President and Vice-President, whom we are Constitutionally prohibited from voting for (we vote for a slave of Electors and only the Electors can vote for Pres. & Veep) are sworn into office BEFORE all the votes are counted. The popular vote is just a sham, it needed be counted because it doesn’t count.
As long as we recognize this tyranny, delegate our power to it, and grant it our consent of the governed, it can do whatever it wants. Only when we withdraw our consent and stop voting for candidates we know we won’t be able to hold accountable, no matter how nice they seem, what party they belong to, or what campaign lies they tell, we will never have a democracy.
What we need is a new Constitution, written by and voted directly upon by us, so that we can grant ourselves health care and control our government. That’s what democratic countries do. Stop pretending that our government with its bailouts for the rich, its torture, wars of aggression, and crimes against humanity, has any legitimate right to exist, and stop legitimizing it by voting in its elections. Approximately have the electorate doesn’t vote because we know that we’re not rich and that rich people will not represent us. Most of us are middle or lower class, working class, or poor, and we do not have one single representative in Congress, in the White House, or on the Supreme Court. They are all millionaires and billionaires and they don’t like poor people.
If we stop voting for them, they will have no legitimate power over us. Then we can hold honest elections and have an honest government with full citizen oversight and accountability. As long as we vote to authorize this tyranny to oppress us, why shouldn’t they?
Thank you. I couldn’t agree more! We must put a stop or elect the right officials to repeal all of the catastrophic legislation now being planned behind closed doors! Lois Theall
The healthcare bill is unconstitutional. The American citizens do not want this bill. We want the freedom to make our own choices on healthcare and should not be mandated to purchase unwanted medical care.
I would liike to ask your health association to challenge Congress’ health care bill in the courts. The judicial system was set up to challenge the constitutionality of laws that Congress passes. So, we need to use the system. You could ask all your members for donations to pay the lawyers to do this. I for one would gladly donate. You could also join with other health associations on this issue and ask them to get donations from their members as well. Please seriously consider this! You would do this country a great service by doing so.
Yes – forcing u, under threat of financial penalty, to buy into s system one doesn’t believe in, support and doesn’t work. Complete give away to the insurance and drug companies and the crooked doctors – all of whom don’t know anything about health.
I sure hope someone sues.
It should be up to each of us. I haven’t been to a doctor in 15 years…
I told my Senator and Congressman months ago the same thing. I don’t believe that the care that it is unconstitutional. One Congressperson even sited the Preamble to the Constitution as their right to pass this bill.
I to think it is unconstitutional because they (the government) are trying to take our freedom an rights away from us. It is also a way to take our hard earned money away from us.
It’s interesting how the mandate to buy health insurance was never a part of Obama’s original plan for universal health care. I am strongly opposed to this mandate. I hold health freedom as a fundamental right of all Americans. It’s becoming very apparent to me and people that I talk with that our elected officials have lost the ability to act on our behalf, but are instead, more than any time in history, governed by special interests. And so in fact are we. It is so important, at this time, for all Americans to step forward and speak up for our fundamental rights, our constitution, and our democracy.
* Congress does not have the constitutional power to pass this mandate into federal law. The Constitution provides for Congress to tax and spend,(and they are doing a lot of that) and to regulate interstate commerce — period. The authors of both “Why the Health Care Bills Are Unconstitutional,” published in the Wall Street Journal and “Why the Personal Mandate to Buy Health Insurance Is Unprecedented and Unconstitutional,” in Health Freedom Watch, cite federal cases stating that the courts have never sanctioned Congress to usurp other powers. (It is interesting to note that even in time of war, Congress has never claimed the power to force Americans to purchase anything.)
* The deals cut to benefit the states of senators and representatives whose votes were being sought violate the constitutional concept of “legislation for the general welfare.”
* This legislation — which requires certain actions by the states, including benefit exchanges in violation of the federal-state form of government described by our Constitution — tramples upon states’ rights.
t’s interesting how the mandate to buy health insurance was never a part of Obama’s original plan for universal health care. I am strongly opposed to this mandate. I hold health freedom as a fundamental right of all Americans. It’s becoming very apparent to me and people that I talk with that our elected officials have lost the ability to act on our behalf, but are instead, more than any time in history, governed by special interests. And so in fact are we. It is so important, at this time, for all Americans to step forward and speak up for our fundamental rights, our constitution, and our democracy.
No Public Option, No Mandate!!!
No Public Option, No Mandate!!!
Why the secrecy in the healthcare debacle. This is a dismantling of the healthcare system; this is not reform. My health or lack of should not be determined by a federal bureaucracy. This gives the federal govenment unconstitutional power over my well being. In addition,my rights regarding my health are being taken away. Those who are supposed to represent me give me pat answers and no one is listening to my concerns. I thought we the poeple were the ones with the power but that is no longer the case with the ruling politicians inWashington. Mayo Clinic has stopped taking Medicare primary care patients at one of their sattelites. Where will this lead? I shudder to think.
That would be the beginning of the end except that the beginning of the end has already occurred so many times. I had so much faith in President Obama but I am extremely disappointed at the evil people he has appointed to help run government, and much of the health care bill scares me to death. I will not be forced to buy any insurance no matter what. That is utterly untenable.
We need to stop and consider whether or not Congress has the Constitutional right to require its citizens to purchase health insurance. My own opinion on this matter is that No, there is nothing in our Constitution that can be interpreted as allowing our government to require that its citizens should buy ANYTHING.
Just THINK ABOUT IT. If the government can require that everyone buy health care, then it can require that everyone must eat a well-balanced diet, go to the gym–and give up smoking cigarettes!!! Great ideas, but can you IMAGINE our government requiring us to do this, whether or not we want to?? Is the improved health we would experience worth giving up our freedom of
choice? I don’t think so. If there is one thing that is unique with our form of government it is our FREEDOM OF CHOICE!! We must fight to KEEP our freedom of choice–not only for ourselves, but for future generations.
Let’s get this matter before the Supreme Court. Write to your Congressman (or call him), and talk to your friends about it–and get them to write to their Congressmen. If we lose our freedom of choice, we have lost the very thing that makes our civilization unique. W.E. Hudson
There is nothing in these bills that reforms healthcare, only who’s going to pay. There are many steps that could be taken to truly reform health care bu the corrupt congress won’t consider them.
We currently have government subsidized sick care – and it is way too expensive and it is totally unresponsive to market place pressures of supply and demand.
Healthcare must be privatized.
The suggested “reforms” are an abomination.
he should try less spending and less giving away our tax dollars to other countries and deal with all the problems we face in the USA……….his health care is going to be another disaster…..till he’s done the dollar will be worth 10 cents……..I for one am looking into moving to another country….I’m tired of paying for lazy individuals who are capable of working but sit at home doing nothing all day long, except having more children so they can get more welfare………I could go on and on but I won’t
freedom of choice in its very essence is the foundation of health—-for individuals, communities, states, countries, the world—it is the core of sovereignty
I have no intention of buying a government healthcare plan and will fight it if told I must buy it. Who
does Congress think they are? In case they don’t know it they work for us not we work for them. As a senior citizen I’m getting damn tired of the crap they are trying to force on us. Their push and shove tactics are going to eventually cause a revolution if they don’t stop their nonsense.
My comment will have to revert to the vernacular for the best effect:
Well, DUH!
Of course it is unconstitutional. One doesn’t need some pointy headed “scholar” to figure that one out. Just RTC!! (Read The Constitution).
But for all this rhetoric, do you ACTUALLY think the administration CARES what you think – OR what the Constiution says? Of course not.
Stop wasting your time talking about it. Go Vote the Bastards out!!!
Grab your liberal neighbor and slap him upside the head and wake that schmuck up!
If that step doesn’t work, the subsequent steps will get messy.
this is not only UNconstitutional it is more about KontrolKare than anything else.
Washington has stepped way over the line and all thats on their minds is squashing our rights and having access to our wallets as Piggy Bsnks not carring for anyone elses welfare but their own,they need Voted out or impeached. I don’t know why people think they have to wait for an election year to roll around to take action.
when you get a program put together to challenge this bill you can add my name to the opposing list.
IT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL! WE SHOULD BE EDUCATED SO THAT WE MAY BE ABLE TO MAKE THE HEALTHIEST CHOICES BUT SHOULD ALSO HAVE THE AUTONOMY TO MAKE OUR OWN CHOICES!
Rewarding fascist minded insurance comglomerates with tax cuts, and a captive market seeded and nourished by force of laws & orders, is NOT health care reform! The United $tates of Perpetual War Profiteering does not have health CARE! It has a vicious health INSURANCE $ystem… that practices DENIAL! DENIAL! DENIAL!
WE THE PEOPLE… want to have what other civilized nation $tates have! WE want and deserve a single payer universal health CARE system like Canada or France or Syria or $weden or Cuba or Italy or Denmark or Germany, etc.
Pay for it? Stop the perpetual war profiteering in Iraq-nam, Afghanistan-nam, Pak-a-nuke-nam, Yemen-nam, etc. Close down 500 foreign bases. We’ll still have 250 left. Also a VAT tax dedicated only for health care costs should be instituted. Furthermore… TAX every trade made in the Wall $treet casino. Refuse to accept imports from companies that export jobs abroad and move their operations off-$hore! Legailize and TAX all pot heads and their suppliers and growers.
So then if they do this, people on unemployment, who do not have a dime of extra cash for ANY insurance would be put into one of their government FEMA camps just so the government can say, ‘you may put others at a health risk’?
They can’t force anyone to buy anything. If I can’t buy vitamins, how the He– can I pay for insurance??? Ludicrous at best!
I have been writing the senators and rep in several states and the leadership of both houses on the constitutionality of the mandate. They think that by instituting a tax on individuals through income tax returns for failure to purchase, they are within constitutional constraints on their power of legislation. They are wrong, but because they tax all workers for Medicare and got no court challenge to forced medicare payments and coverage (also, in my opinion, unconstitutional) they think they can get away with this extortion also. BTW, there is a court challenge underway, making great progress, to allow individuals to refuse Medicare part A coverage. Right now, the HHS (that ignorant Sebelius person) is trying to enforce the program operating manual (POM) requirement established under HIlBill Clinton, that anyone who wants to opt out of Medicare Part A coverage to give up SS benefits. This is not part of the law governing Medicare or SS, would save more than 600 billion in medicare costs if only 1% were allowed to opt out, but in the infinite ignorance and stupidity of government bureaucracy, medicare part A is a government mandate for retirees and we cannot make our own health and medical choices outside of medicare. We are also forbidden by current laws and with this proposed legislation to obtain catastrophic insurance (not available to anyone under 40) or “normal” insurance or do without, as I have done with great success for most of the last 30 years. Health insurance is neither health or insurance. The times I had through employers “health insurance” I was (hopefully reparable) damaged by the allopathic, drug exclusive medical treatment. I have done very well with acupuncture, chiropractic and supplements, including curing conditions doctors said were chronic and needed lifetime drug treatment (which actually caused other almost fatal problems).
This proposed legislation is an expansion of government control over “health”, started by Medicare and is at best federal insurance aid. When did insurance get to be the only way to deliver health care? I don’t want and will not use the drug and medical services delivered by “insurance” standards of Best Practices (AMA and drug company determined). State laws regulating insurance are corrupt. If “insurance” companies were truly competitive and people weren’t forced to take what was offered, maybe there would be plans offered that were geared to health and not drugs, disease and death. Federal takeover will not reform insurance but make it worse by institutionalizing insurance, like Medicare.
Soooo let me get this straight
I we don’t pay a “tax” buying health insurance, thereby insuring the ongoing corporate welfare (yes, folks, you can go to the AFL-CIO web site and click on the link that tells you the salaries for the Fortune 500 CEO’s) you will go to jail, which will cost the tax payers $40,000 per year for each inmate. Each inmate, of course has health insurance, paid for by the state. This is so Orwellian. Or should I say an Obamination
Mock & Tolin: The Constitutionality of the Health Insurance Tax
Rodney P. Mock & Jeffrey Tolin (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo — Orfalea College of Business) have posted Purchase or Else: The Health Insurance “Tax”, 126 Tax Notes 224 (Jan. 11, 2010), on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
With the Affordable Health Care for America Act, H.R. 3962, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate’s version of a health care bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, H.R. 3590, recently passed, this article reviews the particulars of each Act’s respective tax or penalty imposed on individual taxpayers who fail to purchase acceptable health care coverage, and questions whether or not such constitutes a “tax” at all, and if such does, whether or not it is an unconstitutional regulatory tax, indirectly regulating that which Congress cannot under the “Commerce Clause” of the U.S. Constitution; namely, non-participating taxpayers who merely “fail to purchase.”
I totally agree with Susan… dated Jan12.
I take care of myself respectfully!
No one, or any government is going to force me to purchase the defective product called AMERICAN Health Insurance. I do not need it and I do not want it. What I want is “Medicare for ALL”. It will do everything that the current bills in the house and senate DO NOT DO. It will cover everyone, be affordable, and every person in the system is covered for everything needed for a healthy life with full freedom to choose the doctor and practitioners WE want. This is Publicly funded health care not more of the PRIVATIZED CORPORATION-CONTROLLED system we now have. Our current system is so costly and so lousy only an IDIOT would want it as a CHOICE! AND I DON”T WANT IT! I do not think our Constitution allows our government to require us to purchase ANYTHING! Nor does our government even have the right to require us to get health care from our current system. GETTING HEALTH CARE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH INTERSTATE COMMERCE! I refuse to pay taxes for wars and I will refuse to purchase this illegal health care!!! Offer everyone Medicare and stop trying to control HOW and WHERE get our health care. I will ALWAYS choose an Integrative Medicine Doctor and I will ALWAYS choose to use natural means over pharmaceutical drugs, nor will I be MANDATED to have vaccinations!! The debacle of the, so-called, ‘Swine Flu” should have shown everyone how untrustworthy our CORPORATE health care system really is. Unfortunately, because we have such fascists news delivery corporations in this country, that only know how to produce propaganda instead of REAL news, most US citizens have no idea how corrupt our system looks now that the world knows what a fraud we produced getting the WHO to declare a PANDEMIC when there was no such thing!!! Most of you probably do not even know that the vast majority of people who died of this, so-called Swine Flu, HAD BEEN VACCINATED with the current flu vaccine being pushed on all of us. Those who refused to take it had mild illness and wound up with A MUCH HEALTHIER AND STRONGER IMMUNE SYSTEM BECAUSE OF IT!! Vaccines do not produce immunity. Only having the disease and overcoming it can do that! Vaccines have NEVER EVER provided full immunity. How many of you know that one?
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, It is the ILLUSION of knowledge.”
-Stephen Hawking
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781-82
If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.
-Thomas Jefferson
“The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it.”
-Statesman John Hay, 1872
“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods.
It seems to me that the nature of the ultimate revolution with which we are now faced is precisely this: That we are in process of developing a whole series of techniques which will enable the controlling oligarchy who have always existed and presumably will always exist to get people to love their servitude.”
-Aldous Huxley in a 1962 speech at Berkeley
All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.
-Edmund Burke
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
-Samuel Adams