The Individual Mandate Health Law...

Recently, as NPR has written, U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson struck down the individual mandated health care in Obama's health-care law. The law requires that all individuals get health insurance. There are a few paradoxes here, though, as this was the only part of the law the judge ruled unconstitutional. As a result, with insurers required to take patients with pre-existing conditions starting in 2014, this could essentially mean that if the law stays in tact with the exception of the individual mandate, people can just buy health insurance when they get sick. Now, normally I would have a problem with this because it means it would affect the busineses. The businesses here are, however, health insurance companies. And I am one to believe that pretty much all health insurance companies are crooked and scammers, and honestly quite ruthless and without an ounce of empathy. They will turn down claims because of some of the most arbitrary decisions. Michael Moore's fascinating documentary on the health care system, Sicko, highlights these points and more.

I do believe, though, that more needs to be done now. It certainly isn't fair to these companies that people can just purchase insurance when they become sick, and it will certainly hurt the wallets of those who are already insured and keep their insurance. This law was created to safeguard the private insurers and the American public together. Unfortunately, with this law deemed unconstitutional, either the health care law gets rewritten, or we demolish the system and create public healthcare and eliminate private insurers. Now, we all know how receptive this country is to big government and socialism, so the latter option is essentially off the table for at least another decade. So we are stuck with the first option. We must rewrite the law, or somehow find a loophole to demand that everyone purchases health insurance. No one will be pleased, and no one really seems too pleased as it is with the healthcare law. Too many earmarks and too much bureacracy prevented this law from possessing the benefits it could have given. So, while I believe that we should have public healthcare, and it should be taken from our taxes, we are stuck with either the current healthcare bill with individual mandates to purchase from a private insurer, or we eliminate the pre-existing condition exceptions that begin in a few years. Either way, not everyone will be delighted with the outcome.