With Passage of Health Care Reform, We Are Now a Socialist Nation!

Congress and President Obama Make It Official:   We Are Now a Socialist Nation!
–with passage of massive health care reform law—
by C. Paul Smith

At noon today (March 23, 2010), President Barack Obama proudly signed into law the massive health reform bill, which is opposed by all Republican Congressmen and a few Democrat Congressmen.

Since President Obama wants all the credit for cramming this law through, it is only right that this brand of health care be dubbed, “Obamacare.”  And, just to be clear—to make sure you understand what this new law will do—here is a brief summary.

It will provide health care for all Americans, giving coverage to the 38 million uninsured and all others who are able to sneak inside our borders.  Health insurance premiums will go down, and those who don’t have health insurance  and who can afford it will be required to purchase health insurance or pay a federal tax to get the government-provided health care.  It will save the nation a trillion dollars in twenty years.  Everyone will get the best health care.  No one will be denied health care because of pre-existing conditions.   Insurance companies will be prevented from making obscene profits.

Wow!  How could anyone oppose this?

The problem is that this “too good to be true” proposal is just that—it is too good to be true.  Do you really believe that this Obamacare will cure all these ills?   It is amazing that half of the nation cannot see the economic flaws in Obamacare.  But because, in fact, about half the people cannot see clearly, let me take a few minutes to point out what should be obvious to all of us.  Obamacare is nothing less than pure socialism—an economic system that is not economically sustainable; therefore it will fail.  Here is why this health care reform law, if allowed to go forward, will fail.

Can a nation deliver quality health care to 38 million more people than are presently being served, and save $50 Billion a year in doing so?  Does anyone really believe this?  But that is exactly what Obama/Pelosi/Reid are promising.

What will happen to the insurance industry if you require them to insure all pre-existing conditions?  Have you really thought this through?   It will kill the insurance Indus-try, which is based upon contracts and proba-bilities and cost projections.    What’s left will not be insurance—it will be socialism.

How can health insurance premiums go down if insurance companies are required to cover pre-existing conditions?  The answer is they can’t; they can only go up—unless the law requires it.   And if the law requires it, then either the insurance companies will go out of business or taxes will be raised to pay for the increased coverage.   In fact, both will happen.  And just to make sure we kill the insurance companies, the Obamacare law prevents them from making excess profits; you know, corporate greed must be punished in order to re-distribute the wealth to those in need.   Socialists do not understand that profit incentive and competition is what has made America great; and they certainly don’t see that by eliminating profit from business they kill the incentive for excellence, achievement and hard work.   Obamacare will replace an incentive-driven economy with one of entitlements and sloth.  Socialism will work only until the receivers take everything away from those who have.   Then socialism dies, too.  And that is exactly what will happen.   The insurance industry will be killed, and/or transformed into socialism, which will lead to economic ruin.

If everyone is being guaranteed health care—at least 38 million more—and if we are going to save $50 Billion a year in the pro-cess, will we continue to attract the brightest and best people to be doctors and nurses.  No, there will be a marked decline in the number of the best people who elect to be doctors.   Many of the best will choose another field to apply their superior skills and intellect.   But don’t worry, there will be more than enough lesser qualified people to take up the slack and become our doctors of the future.   The result will be a decline in the quality of health care that is offered in America.

The problems wrought by Obamacare are even worse than what I have just described.  It takes a little bit of analysis and education to understand, but not much.   The passage of Obamacare stands as a condemnation of our entire national education system, because the liberal teachers who run our education system have finally succeeded in passage of this self-destructive law.   The liberals are celebrating this political success, even though it is sowing the seeds of economic destruction.  The liberals are oblivious to the serious blow Obamacare has dealt to the economic foundation of America.  Today America has embraced Marx and Lenin and has rejected Adam Smith.

Educating America is the only way to cure the economic poison that America has swallowed today.   But this will be a difficult task; we have a nation that is pre-occupied with getting their entitlements from the rich in order to level the playing field.  Hopefully this poison can be eradicated before it irreversibly cripples America.

Constitutional Challenges to Obamacare

Within hours after President Obama signed the health care reform law, fourteen states filed law suits seeking to stop the law.1 Wholly apart from the socialism aspect of the new, health care reform law, the law may be unconstitutional for three reasons:  First, the procedure that Congress employed to pass the law (“deeming” the bill passed), may violate Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution.  Second, the substance of the law may exceed the powers of Congress, as set forth in the “Commerce” Clause  (Article I, Section of the Constitution.  Because the health care reform law takes over the insurance industry—which has historically been a matter of private contracts and state domain—the law may be an improper regulation of state commerce.  Congress may only regulate “interstate” commerce.  The new law proposes to transform state-regulated health care and insurance into federally-regulated health care and insurance.  Third, because this law impairs private contracts and takes private property without due process (a violation of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution), the law may be fatally flawed.2

The Supreme Court has previously upheld both Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, but those laws were not nearly so far-reaching in attempting to interfere with private industry and private contracts.  It is true that the Supremacy Clause (Article VI) makes the Constitution controlling in areas where both the federal government and the States have concurrent jurisdiction.  But the Commerce Clause and the Tenth Amendment limit the scope of federal legislation, and the current Supreme Court has previously shown its recognition and support of this restrictive interpretation of Congressional power.  Accordingly, in my judgment, at this point there is a good chance that the Supreme Court could invalidate some or all of the new health care reform law.

Stay tuned for the development of these cases that are being filed, some of which will eventually make their way to the Supreme Court.

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1 States suing the federal government to stop the health care reform law include:  Florida, Nebraska,   and Virginia.

2 Virginia has an additional basis for challenging the new health care reform law; Virginia has a state law that prohibits federal, unfunded mandates.