Yes, it would send a signal - loud and clear - that the Constitution still has some ability to check power. Yes, it would be useful for smearing those Congressmen eager to run roughshod over America's sacred rulebook. Yes it would strke down one of the most illiberal aspects of the legislation. But the individual mandate was designed by technocrats to keep the monstrous new Obamacare system from getting too expensive. Let me explain.
Now that insurance companies can?t turn away people with pre-existing conditions, premiums are going up and may skyrocket. The technocrats know this. So, the idea was, they had to force the young 'invincibles' into the insurance pool. (You know, those crazy kids with their good health and low risk.) They only had to borrow an idea from Gov. Mitt "MassCare" Romney.
The young invincibles are people who think ?because I?m young and healthy, I?m not willing to pay $100-$400 a month (depending on the state) to have health insurance. If I get sick, I?ll pay out of pocket.?
Maybe it will get so bad that people will agitate for repeal in Congress. One can only hope. But a victory in the Supreme Court will be a pyrrhic victory. And healthcare will continue to cannibalize any future growth we're able to muster in the wake of everything Bush II and Obama have wrought with this economy.
In a moment of lucidity today, Sarah Palin wrote in support of Paul Ryan?s Roadmap for the Wall Street Journal. This passage on healthcare is relevant:
On health care, it would replace ObamaCare with a new system in which people are given greater control over their own health-care spending. It achieves this partly through creating medical savings accounts and a new health-care tax credit?the only tax credit that would be left in a radically simplified new income tax system that people can opt into if they wish.
Sounds great. It?s market friendly. It gives people access to healthcare. And of course, this is what we should have done from the start. But Congressional Democrats and the Great Technocrat himself, pushed forward headlong into a monstrous piece of social engineering that has its tentacles in everything. The goal? A single payer system or the purchase of a thousand new special interests. Or both.
In short, Obamacare cannot be allowed to continue without full repeal. A partial strikedown will only make it hurt more. So, while we can celebrate winning a battle against socialized medicine, Obamacare has made other inroads. There are many more battles. We may be fighting this healthcare trench war -- while paying terrible premiums -- for a long time to come.
Max Borders is a writer living in Austin. He blogs at Ideas Matter.
