Health care law sparks controversy in states
Many states are arguing whether the new health care law is constitutional and are planning to override it.
April 12, 2010 • written by Margaret Cross
Filed under News
March 23 marked a momentous day in American history: President Barack Obama signed the health care bill, which had spent 15 months in Congress, into law. Now, however, many American citizens are in an uproar because they think the law is unconstitutional.
What took the states so long to voice their opinions against the mandate which they had plenty of time to fight?
“People thought it had no chance of passing,” American government teacher Terry Austin said. “Most people don’t speak for or against this kind of thing until it is too late or almost too late.”
Tennessee is no exception. Now that the bill is law, Republicans in the State legislature, and even Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen, are working to “nullify a key provision of the federal health insurance reform,” according to The Commercial Appeal.
On Feb. 17 the Tennessee state Senate passed the “Tennessee Health Freedom Act,” which presents Tennesseans with the choice of purchasing health care “without penalty from the federal government,” according to The Appeal. The state is afraid that the new health care law will force Tennesseans to buy plans from TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid program. However, an on-line newspaper called The Examiner says that this is not necessarily true.
“If you already have employer-provided insurance, you can keep it,” the Examiner said. “If you do not currently have any insurance, you may have to purchase a plan by 2014. Exemptions would be granted for those in financial hardship which is measured using the poverty line.”
Other arguments against federal health care, such as those coming from State Senate Republican Zach Wamp of TN, stem from the belief that the law would force states, citizens, and the entire country into debt.
“It is a multi-billion dollar mandate on Tennessee and we do not have the money to pay for it,” Wamp said. “We will not raise taxes, we will not have a state income tax, and we will not go into debt because of this mandate.”
Supporters of the new law argue that federal health care would reduce the national debt instead of increasing it.
“[The law will put] our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by more than $100 billion over the next 10 years–-and more than $1 trillion over the second decade–-by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse,” the official White House website said.
This information is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to explaining the health care law. Austin believes this contributes to the number of people who are fighting the bill that Obama originally proposed.
“They think it’s being forced on them,” Austin said. “They think it’s the government telling them what to do and how to do it. They think it’s socialism, and it’s scaring them off.”
USA Today claims that 14 states want to bring the law to the Supreme Court to be declared unconstitutional. This process is shedding more light on the mandate itself.
“It’ll be interesting to see how the Supreme Court rules,” Austin said. “I think the process is good to show that we need to be more involved in what Congress is doing so we can speak for or against what it’s doing.”
Because Tennessee and other states plan to repeal the law, nobody can say for sure whether or not the United States will even have federal health care. However, if the Supreme Court declares the law constitutional, the results may still vary from person to person.
As soon a student who knows a decent amount of history, the thought of someone requiring you buy what the government has similarities to Socialism. Granted, from a honest perspective, the thought of ‘free insurance’ does sound nice, but take in mind who is really paying for that. My parents already pay for my own insurance, which already and they stressed, is very expensive not to mention the taxes that they pay for even when this ‘system’ isn’t even activated.
Also, if you look at the most recent and correct me if I’m wrong but Obama has enacted a law that requires students to only recieve finanical aid through the government, therefore making banks irrelevant.
So now you can buy insurance from the government and go to college from the governement, only if you do their ‘selected’ careers. Socialism?