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tl;dr: The supreme court just accepted a case asking whether the tax penalty for not having health insurance is constitutional. Ruling is expected in June 2012.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear appeals from just one decision... The decision, from a divided three-judge panel, said the mandate overstepped Congressional authority and could not be justified by the constitutional power “to regulate commerce” or “to lay and collect taxes.”

The appeals court went no further, though, severing the mandate from the rest of the law.

On Monday, the justices agreed to decide not only whether the mandate is constitutional but also, if it is not, how much of the balance of the law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, must fall along with it.

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I'm keen to see how this case plays out. The ability for the government to force citizens to purchase a service or good must be balanced with the freedom for people to choose how to spend their money.

Further, it's a very partisan issue. If the law is upheld, the democrats win, if it falls the republicans win - and this is particulalry notable because the timing for the decision leads into the heaviest part of the election season. It could have the opposite effect than what is desired for the elections though - if it's struck down and the healthcare law is gutted, that could call democrats to action to put people in place to fix the issues and restart healthcare. I'm not sure that the reverse would be true for republicans though.

I've also heard that - that some democrats are secretly hoping ObamaCare gets booted out by the supreme court before the election, so they can use it as a rallying cry to win in november.

Well, that's it for ObamaCare. The Supremes always vote on party lines for stuff like this.

some article was talking about this with Social Security back in 1937 (I think that is right) or medicare.

we'll have to see how this is going to pan out.

I don't think the tax penalty should apply until the government is ready to pony up its own insurance offer for people. That should've been step 2 after getting the bill passed, rather than fucking over a bunch of people who can't afford private insurance.

Zappit said:

Well, that's it for ObamaCare. The Supremes always vote on party lines for stuff like this.

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Not necessarily. The common scuttlebutt here is it'll probably come down 4-4 with Kennedy being a windsock.

Quotemander Prime said:

I don't think the tax penalty should apply until the government is ready to pony up its own insurance offer for people. That should've been step 2 after getting the bill passed, rather than fucking over a bunch of people who can't afford private insurance.

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Honestly, every lefty I've talked to basically wants it to fail so we can keep pushing for the Euro/Canadian style healthcare we want: Universal coverage that you pay taxes for.

GasBandit said:

Not necessarily. The common scuttlebutt here is it'll probably come down 4-4 with Kennedy being a windsock.

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No surprise considering Scalia and Thomas attended a dinner with the people who are challenging the health care law.

As Ash said, the legislation was not what progressives wanted at all. Losing the universal health care while giving the insurance industry such a huge give away was monumentally stupid. The only reason Pharma wants it gone is because it changes the rules for them.

Now republicans are saying Kagan should recuse herself due to her involvement with the law while solicitor general, and democrats are saying Thomas should recuse himself because his wife is actively involved in opposing it. Fun times.

AshburnerX said:

Honestly, every lefty I've talked to basically wants it to fail so we can keep pushing for the Euro/Canadian style healthcare we want: Universal coverage that you pay taxes for.

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Who's we?

Quotemander Prime said:

Who's we?

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We = Many other lefties/progressives and myself. I thought I was pretty clear.

Nope.

I understood Ash to mean what he meant. /shrug.