The court by design is to keep capital hill on honest footing. They by design are not to be political in their rulings. They by design are an equal branch of government with the authority AND DUTY to strike down laws that do not meet constitutional muster. They by design are appointed for life so that politics cannot hold keeping their job, etc. over their heads and again, therefore allowing them to operate without bias in their rulings.
Justice Roberts, not Kennedy was the deciding vote? Wow, you could have knocked me over with a feather on that one. Why is it that the "liberal" justices NEVER stray from POLITICAL viewpoints and whenever the sanctity of the courts ruling on a controversial decision, that it rests squarely on the shoulders of the conservative justices? This one really should have been a 9-0 decision!
The government is forcing people to buy something. Justice Robert's writing picks out a scapegoat of calling the mandate a tax and not a penalty. He quite simply is wrong!
Now the repercussions for us all:
1. Healthcare costs and especially insurance rates will RISE DRAMATICALLY for everyone! They will have to or that insurance company will not offer major medical insurance (as many have all ready done prior to this decision actually, look it up) and only offer life policies, annuities, etc.
a. Since the insurance company cannot charge more for pre-existing conditions individually, then they will factor that cost into EVERYONE'S RATES, therefore raising all premiums.
b. It's simple math and ONLY MATH here. Why should a perfectly healthy person pay the same rate for medical insurance as another person that has, let's say, cancer? I'm not being mean here, I'm being real. They simply should not. Did this healthcare law try to fix that, NOPE! They put the burden on anyone else besides themselves. Why? Simple; they are simply stupid when compared to the minds of the business world! Remember the credit card law passed and went into affect in August a couple years ago? What happened then? EVERY credit card company raised their rates to 29.99% first then some have backed down the rate only to a very select few individuals. The other side effect is many great programs credit card companies used that us consumers liked and used have gone away! One example I know first hand is my former company has it's local credit card via GE Money. There was a program if you purchased on the company card, that you could have a 5 months same as cash (no payments, no interest, no accruals). The company sold major appliances and therefore people did NOT have to wait until tax rebate time to make those big ticket purchases. They could get a new fridge and have 5 months to pay it off if they were approved for the card. The day before the law went into affect, GE Money informed us that option was no longer available for us to offer due to the new law! Face it people, congress can NEVER SAVE US! They really should stop trying!
2. Many large and small companies will drop healthcare all together and simply pay the fine! AT&T if I recall right made statements when the law debate was going on initially, that they would save 7 BILLION, yes with a "B", dollars by dropping healthcare and paying the fine! How many companies will be willing to shoulder that much burden just to be "nice" to their employees?
3. The individual mandate states basically that if a person does not get healthcare they will pay a 1% income tax penalty to the IRS at tax time. Take for example a person making $30,000 a year. A normal decent job, steadily in the middle of the middle class. Well here's the math. 1% of $30,000 is $300. Yep, $300 a year. That's only $25 per month! What person in their right mind is going to pay even for an employer's participation plan for their healthcare when they can be on the government's nickle for $25 per month???
I am NOT saying our healthcare system didn't need fixing. If does. However, as usual, the feds overstepped their bounds and instead of doing the hard work and fixing the problems, they do this poor excuse of sweeping healthcare legislation that in the end, will cost us ALL MUCH MORE than before!
Liberals, please don't say a word about healthcare prices in 4 years or so. Definitely do NOT blame those pesky insurance companies! No one likes the insurance man when they buy but they love to see and thank him when he brings the policy check to them in the worst of times! Insurance is one of the most heavily regulated industries in this country. Are there some bad apples? Sure, as with any industry. However, the whole of the insurance industry is there to provide financial relief to us at a very rough time (mostly) in our lives and they make money at the same time, which normally to most anyone is a win-win.
