I vaguely remember this point being argued in front of the Supreme Court years ago when the law first passed.
One of the Justices remarked to a WH attorney"Today you are going to argue it us a tax, then tomorrow you are going to argue it is not a tax (but a penalty.)
The crux of the argument goes back to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s 2012 ruling upholding the constitutionality of the individual mandate as a valid use of Congress’s taxing power. The court held that Congress was able to offer people a choice: get insurance, or pay a tax.
If there is no tax penalty for not buying insurance now, then no taxation is taking place, so the other parts of the law tied to the individual mandate must go, the 20 GOP attorneys general argue.
I think it’s time that blue states go their own way in regards to health insurance - they are already half way there with running their own marketplaces - and let the people in red states just go without or spend their money on worthless health insurance. Those states are ■■■■■■■■■ anyway and trying to bring them into the 21st Century is a waste of time and resources.
NY, for instance, already had guaranteed issue and community rating laws many, many years before ACA.
The law said “penalty” not “tax”. When Roberts changed “penalty” to “tax” he altered the law as it was written and interpreted by those who wrote the law and explained the law.
Gotta love all this when it’s compounded by the most typical kind of Trumpian lying and sociopathy:
Trump this morning on imaginary “Democrat bill”:
“Because I don’t like the children being separated from the parents. I don’t like it. I hate it. But that’s a Democrat bill that we’re enforcing.”
But an actual Democratic piece of legislation that protects people against being discriminated against for preexisting conditions? Nope. Can’t enforce that.
This is what I mean. Red state people don’t even understand how ACA is good for them and they want it gone because “freedom.” So I say, let’s give them the freedom to die because they don’t want health insurance or insurance that would cover conditions they already suffer from and give them the freedom for said insurance companies to kick them out of their plans when they become to expensive to insure.
I’m done with trying to convince stupid people from harming themselves.
And what really pisses me off is these same people starting kickstarter campaigns to get other people to donate money to them to pay for medical expenses because they don’t have insurance.
Lots of ignorance on display along with ugliness. Most folks in the red states already had good insurance long before Obamacare.
I had great insurance and never was on any form of Obamacare. I was forced onto Medicare at hitting 65 (I call it rationed care) with Blue Cross Blue Shield as a suplement.
Would rather be on my old insurance.
In point of fact a good many people lost their insurance when Obamacare came out and were forced onto Obamacare to have insurance.
