New Health Care Mandate: Constitutional or Unconstitutional?

Healthcare is always a hot topic among Americans. The Patient Protection & Affordability Care Act has been the center of a lot of news hype since it was enacted in April 2010. Amidst the debate, is the question of whether the “individual mandate” under the Affordable Care Act is constitutional or not. The mandate requires uninsured Americans to purchase health insurance if they do not fall within one of the individual mandate’s exceptions. The mandate requires U.S. citizens and legal residents to have federal government-approved “qualifying” health insurance coverage beginning in 2014. Those who refuse to purchase insurance will have to pay a tax penalty of $695 per year or 2.5% of their annual income, whichever is higher.

In analyzing the constitutionality of the Act, we must look at the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution. According to the Congressional Budget Office, a “mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be unprecedented form of federal action; the government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.”

Some people believe that this mandate would exceed the Legislature’s power under the U.S. Constitution. How can congress punish you for not buying something? Can Congress really make you buy insurance or slap you with a fine? These are the questions many states are now asking. This question can be answered under the commerce clause of the Constitution, which grants Congress the power “to regulate commerce…among the several states.”

Republicans are hoping the reform law will be struck down while Democrats are in hopes it will prevail. For now the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has decided the mandate is unconstitutional. I am sure the decision will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for a final decision.