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Federal Judge Upholds Individual Mandate in Healthcare Reform Law

Posted: Friday, October 22, 2010

US District Judge George Steeh, in Detroit, Michigan, ruled that the nation's constitution permits the federal government to require individuals to obtain health insurance coverage as part of the historic Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Steeh is the first judge to rule on the constitutionality of the law but he will not be the last. Similar to plaintiffs in the other lawsuits, the Thomas More Law Center contends that the federal government has no constitutional right to compel individuals to obtain health insurance or to penalize them for not doing so. In essence, the center says, the ACA is an attempt to regulate not just individual activity but also individual inactivity, which opens the door to a complete loss of freedom.

The government has argued that it is legally operating under the constitution's commerce clause, which authorizes it to regulate interstate commerce. According to the federal brief, the individual mandate addresses a problem in the interstate market of healthcare created by people who forgo insurance. The cost of care that many of these individuals receive free of charge from hospitals and physicians gets shifted to providers, insurers, governments, and in the end, insured individuals and taxpayers, disrupting the marketplace, the government states.

Steeh agreed with the government's arguments about the commerce clause in his ruling today and also upheld the constitutionality of the penalty that individuals must pay for not obtaining insurance coverage.

Legal experts predict that no matter who wins or loses, the ACA lawsuits filed in various federal district courts will make their way to the US Supreme Court.

Source: http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9928&catid=53&Itemid=8, Medscape, October 7, 2010