Health reform unconstitutional?
Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch co-authored a Wall Street Journal op-ed over the weekend that states the case for why the health-care bills that passed the House and Senate are unconstitutional. (Read it here.)
That case can be broken down into three parts.
1. The Constitution doesn’t allow the federal government to force Americans to buy something, such as health insurance. (States have much more leeway, which is why you are forced to buy auto insurance.)
2. The Harry Reid compromise that would give Nebraska special privileges violates the Constitution’s general welfare clause.
3. The requirement that states set up benefit exchanges (something Utah already does and some of you have said doesn’t work), turns states into subdivisions of the federal government. In reality, the states created the federal government and limited its powers over them. That’s why, for instance, Washington couldn’t outright reduce speed limits to 55 mph back in the ’70s. It had to threaten to withhold federal highway funds unless states voluntarily lowered their limits.
The other side has attacked Republicans for being hypocritical about their attacks on the costs of health-care reform. A recent Associated Press story noted that Republicans, when they were in charge of Congress, passed a Medicare prescription drug benefit that will add at least a half-trillion dollars to the deficit over 10 years. (Read it here.)
That’s all true. But, regardless of your opinion of him, Hatch has served notice that there will be legal challenges to this health-reform effort, should it become law. Given the current makeup of the Supreme Court, my guess is those challenges have a good chance of succeeding.
Which brings us back to square one, and to the problem outlined in this story. Health care costs, although they leveled somewhat last year, are out of control. The House and Senate bills don’t begin to solve that problem.
It’s time to start over, using solutions that give states incentives to craft their own reforms. Some of you ask, “Why haven’t states already done so?” The truth is some of them have. Utah is in the middle of an intense health-reform effort started a few years ago.