Being uninsured is a mandate, too
Nonsense
Carmelita has been mandated into the uninsured health care market, banished from “normal” care by a wholly unaffordable insurance system.
Not being able to afford something isn't a mandate. Also Obamacare serves to raise the price of insurance.
she’s participating in commerce
In the health care market, not the health care insurance market. And if she wasn't receiving treatment for anything (which she might not be at the moment, the article talks about recent treatment not current treatment), then she wouldn't even be participating in the health care market.
She was forced, mandated to purchase emergency care or choose to risk her life.
A disease or condition is not a mandate. Neither is gravity. If you jump off a cliff you might have no choice but to fall, but there is no mandate for you to fall. Neither gravity, nor a disease, fits any of the definitions of a mandate.
mandate
noun
1. a command or authorization to act in a particular way on a public issue given by the electorate to its representative: The president had a clear mandate to end the war.
2. a command from a superior court or official to a lower one.
3. an authoritative order or command: a royal mandate.
4. (in the League of Nations) a commission given to a nation to administer the government and affairs of a former Turkish territory or German colony.
5. a mandated territory or colony.
dictionary.reference.com
for example, the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which requires hospitals to treat anyone needing emergency care regardless of ability to pay
That is indeed a mandate, but its a mandate for those who are already engaging in commerce, to engage in commerce with additional treatment rather than treating them equally. Its very different than the PPACA mandate.
Congress has enacted over the years a complex web of authorizing statutes and rules that regulate health care and allow insurance companies to price people out of the market.
The regulations don't allow insurance companies to price people out, they would have that ability with no regulation. What the regulations do (and PPACA contributes to this) is increase the cost of providing insurance, which helps price people out.
Don’t listen only to the arguments of Ivy League lawyers. Please listen to real people.
Including people who will lose their insurance or have to pay more for it because of PPACA.
In any case the USSC is not supposed to rule on the practical benefits of a law (and if that was its job it should still strike down the law since its practically harmful) but on its constitutionality.
They’ve already been mandated to buy health care
No they haven't, not even with the PPACA (which is a mandate to buy health insurance, not health care, they aren't the same thing). |
