Where is the constitutional authority for government mandates in health insurance contracts?

March 14, 2017 | Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

I can understand a government case per the 16th amendment for a tax deduction (not a tax credit) extended to individuals and small business to offset the cost of health care premiums, however, I see no constitutional authority for the federal government to dictate to private insurance providers that they MUST cover preexisting conditions or that they MUST charge a 30% (or whatever) surcharge if a customer lets his policy lapse and then wants to sign up again later.

Whether these are "good ideas" or not, where is the constitutional authority?

[Strac6]

SCOTUS said it was there, just like the invented “right of privacy” justifying abortion in Roe and the rights of SOCTUS itself in Marbury v. Madison.

Mr. Chief Justice Marshall and his AJs needed work and a more important role, so they give it to themselves.

Slippery Slope 101

[originalbuckeye]

This is a trick question, right? Because we all know there is No Constitutional Authority for most of what Obama ‘achieved’. His ‘Legacy’ is just a fiction for Dems to promote.

[ResponseAbility]

It’s like seeing Leprechauns Jim. But when you are drunk on other peoples money no doubt you can see them.

[onyx]

As a matter of fact, I went all through life without any medical insurance, and that included raising 3 children mostly on my own. I had to pay for hospital stays and doctor / surgeons for spinal meningitis with one, a total of three broken arms, one severely broken leg, two concussions, braces for one, measles and one case of chicken pox.

In each emergency, I negotiated cash settlements or payments with both the doctors, surgeons and hospitals that were far less than any medical insurance would have billed.

For example, my youngest son’s spinal meningitis landed him in the hospital’s intensive care for 10 days and I paid $1,000.00 and his doctor charged me a whole $100.00. He was all of 18 month’s old. That wonderful doctor went on to glorious fame and deservedly so. The hospital was happy to work with me, knowing my circumstances and I paid them in full upon discharge.

Those were the “good old days.”

I always bought the school insurance at the beginning of each new school year. That covered accidents and that insurance came in handy ONCE: one severely broken leg & concussion, at a private school in Lake Tahoe - ski accident. (same spinal meningitis son).

[Jumper]

In the late seventies all the State attorney general's backed mandatory auto insurance and uninsured mortorists insurance paid by those responsible citizens - who wanted to drive legally. Then all those AGs flush with cash became State govoners, and some moved on to be congressmen and senators - hence we now have their fingerprints all over the welfare medical insurance paid by those who want their own insurance.

Can't wait until they decide that I can only take 80% of the food I purchase at the grocery store out because the rest goes to a homeless shelter or foodbank....

[semaj]

The health care scam has nothing to do with actual health care. It’s a pretense designed to enrich insurance providers and their stockholders. Nothing more, nothing less

[bereanrabbi]

The gov’t can legally penalize you for failure to comply with certain laws.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxing_and_Spending_Clause

[BamaAndy]

There is none but sadly we have a political supreme court rather than defenders of our constitution and politicians who will not impeach the likes of Kagen, Sootomayer, or Ginsberg.

[blackdog]

And at that, insurance is state regulated with state insurance regulators policing insurance companies. It is not a federal function. That is until Roberts just made it up.

[JennysCool]

The “good old days,” indeed.

Thanks for reminding me of “school insurance.” My parents bought it every year. The government didn’t make them do it.

[publius911]

Once “insurance” took hold, ALL medical costs skyrocketed, including doctor visits.

I have not seen, in the last year or three, any discussions of the gigantic book, with tens (hundreds?) of thousands of CODES established by federal bureaucrats, that doctors MUST use to justify payment by Medicare.

Invariably, every doctor I have asked how much that adds to his own time that he must bill, affirm that, it is between 25 and 40%.

NOT MEDICAID! THAT IS JUST ANOTHER TOTAL TRANSFER OF WEALTH FROM THE PRODUCTIVE TO THE PARASITES, WITH NO LIMITS.

[Cololeo]

“I can remember paying my family doctor $5.00 a visit for my toddlers in the early 70’s!”

OMG! Take me back to the 50’s! $5.00 house calls, the black bag with the standard drugs that wouldn’t kill you or have 10,000 side effects. He drove an Oldsmobile because that’s what doctors drove. No ostentatious Cadillacs, overly flamboyant Pontiacs, Chevy was out, Ford was out, and a Lincoln was reserved for the highest of the high. He was trustworthy, had a good bedside manner, always thought of his patient first, and was a pillar of the community.

I thank you profusely for giving me that episode into the past, where life really WAS good. How we survived our ignorance is beyond understanding. Slingshots, M80s, bicycles without helmets, playing soldier in new construction sites, and riding no-handed! A full supermarket buggy was $20, and Mom was always there.

GOD, how can we reclaim what we have lost?

[monkeyshine]

No authority to force Americans to enter into contracts with other private parties (insurance companies). This is exacerbated by the fact that in many markets there is only one choice. So in effect the government is saying “you people over there, give your money to this gut over here” no matter if that recipient has been negligent, derelict, obstreperous, mean-spirited, willfully rejecting to fulfill obligations they agreed to when they signed people up, or specifically refuses to pay for treatments or medications that other competitors pay for in other markets.

In any other case, any example, any market... if you take your car to be repaired and the mechanic cheats you, you go to another mechanic and tell everyone what a jerk he is. But in this one case of health insurance the people in some markets only have one mechanic they can send their car to and must use and even if he is a blind, deaf quadriplegic they have no other choice except to pay huge fines. Friggin ridiculous on its face, and only “constitutional” in the heads of 5 robed jackals.

[monkeyshine]

A few years ago I was in a doctor’s office and he asked me to disrobe in front of his female nurse. I was just a little bit shy and hesitant but she said “don’t worry, I’ve seen it all before” to which I replied “Yeah you probably have thousands of male patients” and she corrected me “no, I mean I have seen all yours before. You couldn’t remember, but I was in the delivery room when you were born.”

Indeed upon learning her name, of course I did not remember my own birth, but I remembered her name as a kid overhearing it in relation to the birth and pediatric care of some of my cousins. Anyway not at all on topic but your post reminded me of this experience.

[Weirdad]

It is illegal as you say.

So if they cannot push it through by their usual fake issues like interstate commerce, then they BLACKMAIL states but refusing to give them back their tax money that the others states who “comply” get back, unless they jump through all the hoops that the feds want.

Simple as that, blackmail.

If we did a convoluted scheme like that to get around a law, especially a tax law, we would be in jail.

They do it all the time and somehow the public ends up thinking it must be OK.

It is so wrong.

Only a few states on a few issues forgo getting their money back. Texas refused medicaid money and is called crazy.

If all states had the integrity to refuse the bribes, the money would just be diverted elsewhere in the treasury, but that is also bad because PART OF LIMITING GOVERNMENT MEANS STARVING THE PIG SO IT CANNOT GROW BIG AND EAT US.

DON”T FEED THE PIG.

[MacNaughton]

According to FOX's BO'Re it is here ...

3/09/2017 What We the People are Entitled to Receive
video run time = 00:03:19 minutes

Declaration of Independence preamble, 1776 - "... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ..."

U.S. Constitution preamble, 1789 - "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. ..."

The Preamble was inserted into the Constitution during the last days of the Constitutional Convention by the Committee on Style, which wrote its final draft. It was not proposed or discussed on the floor of the convention beforehand.  The Preamble serves solely as an introduction, and does not assign powers to the federal government, nor does it provide specific limitations on government action. Due to the Preamble's limited nature, no court has ever used it as a decisive factor in case adjudication.

May 1875: "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."  Critique of the Gotha Program, by Karl Marx

[Uncle Miltie]

Only John Roberts knows.

[Lurker]

Emanation.
Penumbras.

L

[momincombatboots]

Absolutely right about that. I don’t see any insurance companies suffering like us working class who are paying in 80 percent more than they use.