The health care reform legislation signed into law by Pres. Obama last March—The Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act—has come under increasing
attacks with
a growing number of legal challenges.
The center of the controversy is the federal mandate requiring all
citizens to purchase health insurance or face penalties, a provision that will
not go into effect until 2014. Opponents argue that Congress is
authorized to legislate in the interests of public safety and welfare under the
commerce clause but that forcing citizens to purchase specific products goes
too far.
Of course, the law is a give-away to the
insurance companies that does little for the masses of people. Essentially,
the law attempts to “fix” the health care crisis without implementing
a system to provide health care.
Much of the opposition to the law is of
a partisan nature. That is, it is Republicans who are making political hay out
of the rightfully unpopular mandate for all citizens to purchase insurance.
While opportunistically opposing the health care law, these politicians offer
no positive solution to the capitalist health care crisis.
Even before enactment, 11
state attorneys general had
already vowed
to file lawsuits challenging the law. Twenty-eight states
so far have filed challenges in the courts, 26 of them are parties to one suit
originally filed in Florida. Oklahoma and Virginia have filed separately.
The legal battle has been waged most
intensely and publicly in Virginia. Immediately after the bill’s passage, the
state’s General Assembly passed a law making it illegal to require state
residents to purchase health insurance.
In December, Virginia’s U.S. District Court
Judge Henry Hudson ruled that requiring people to obtain health insurance is
unconstitutional. The federal government has appealed that
decision and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear the case
in May.
Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s attorney
general, is one of the staunchest opponents of the health care bill. He
recently announced his intent to leap completely over the state courts and go
directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, a virtually unprecedented move. Even if the
request is denied, it is very likely the Supreme Court will hear the case in
its next term.
The ultimate fate of the bill remains to
be seen. To date, it has a 2-2 record in the courts. A federal court in Florida
joined the court in Virginia to reject it, while federal courts in Mississippi
and Michigan have upheld it.
Even if it
is ultimately upheld in the courts,
however, the new law cannot and will not come
close to meeting the overwhelming health care needs of the people of the United
States. One of the primary impacts of the so-called reforms will be a massive
expansion of the market for the insurers and pharmaceuticals, only increasing
their already soaring profits.
The crux of the problem is that the
capitalist ruling class and their loyal representatives in Washington view
health care services and products as commodities to produce, market and sell
for a profit, not as guaranteed rights for all people. Other industrialized countries
have national health care systems that cost far less per capita and deliver
higher quality care than the United States.
In this time of budget cuts, reductions
in services, rising unemployment and record foreclosures, universal health care is more critical than ever. To
legitimately and effectively solve the ongoing crisis in health care in the
United States, the private health insurance profiteers must be dismantled, the
pharmaceutical corporations must be expropriated and health care must become a
universally guaranteed right of all people.
