Obama Administration Files Brief Defending Health Care Law Individual Mandate With Supreme Court

[Survivoreesta]

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is defending the health care overhaul in a new filing with the Supreme Court that calls the law an appropriate response to a "crisis in the national health care market."

The administration filed a written submission to the court Friday, focusing on a core requirement that individuals buy insurance or pay a penalty.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/06/obama-health-care-individual-mandate_n_1190262.html

[ixion]

1. how does a mandate address a crisis in health care? Answer:

It does not.

Health insurance is NOT health care. And being forced to by a FOR PROFIT product from a privately held company is not going to do anything but enrich said privately held company.

[jberryhill]

2. That profit margin is itself now regulated, though

It makes no difference to me if a private company is doing it with a 20% administrative overhead, or a government agency or chartered corporation is doing it with a 20% administrative overhead.

[dflprincess]

5. Medicare's overhead is 3%

A government run single payer system does not have overhead expenses like CEO salaries or commissions paid to insurance brokers and agents (to name a couple unneccesary expenses).

[Orangepeel]

4. There are nonprofit health insurance companies

Which doesn't change the fact that health insurance is not health care. But in the interest of accuracy, the purchase is not necessarily from a for profit company. Also, it's not important, but the term "privately held company" refers to a business without stockholders, which I think is probably the opposite of what you mean.

[alp227]

3. names of cases

"Administration to high court: Congress acted within rights on health-care law" (Robert Barnes, Wash. Post, 1/7/11)

National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius; Florida, et al., v. Department of Health and Human Services; and Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida, et al.