November 11, 2020, 5:58 PM EST., Updated 6:12 PM EST.
written by Net Advisor™
WASHINGTON, DC. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments over whether Obamacare law should be invalidated.
In December 2017, the Republican-Controlled Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. We’ve cited (here, here, here, here, and here), that the Trump tax cuts played a pivotal role in helping make the U.S. economy boom again. The U.S. economy suffered years of stagnant growth under the previous administration (notable reports here, and here).
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included the removal of a costly tax penalty that was included in Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; otherwise known as the “Affordable Care Act” (“ACA”) or “Obamacare.” ACA was barely passed by a Democrat-Controlled Congress in 2010. In fact, 34 Democrats and all Republicans voted against it.
Apparently, no one read the ACA bill. The lead Democrat co-sponsor, Max Baucus (D-WY) said reading the Obamacare bill was a “waste of time.” Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, Congress “[has] to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it…” Americans did begin to find out what’s ‘in it,’ and they didn’t like it.
The Obamacare Mandate.
Obamacare required everyone to have health insurance or else suffer a costly fine or tax penalty. However, not everyone had to pay this costly tax of $695 to over $2,000 per year. There were exceptions granted including to illegal aliens, prisoners, and those on welfare.
America was upset with the passage of Obamacare and reckless debt spending. So when the 2010 Mid-term Elections came, America booted the largest number of Democrats from Congress and state legislators since 1928.
The Congressional Budget Office under the Obama Admin said that some 30 million Americans would still be uninsured even with Obamacare.
- Read More: The Truth About Obamacare
By 2013, a majority of Americans wanted the law repealed. Senator Charles “Chuck” Schumer (D-NY) admitted that 85% of Americans were fine with their healthcare before Obamacare.
2012: Obamacare Law Challenged In Court.
The Obama Admin argued in 2012 that the ACA mandate was vital in order to make the Obamacare law work. This mandated tax was original called a penalty or fine. But with unprecedented legal advice for the Obama Admin’s lawyers, Supreme Court Justice John Roberts indicated that if the ACA fine was really a tax, then the law would be legal.
The mandated tax on mostly healthy young people with lower income, and lower income working-class people was necessary to subsidize the costs of healthcare for those burdening the healthcare system the most.
“Most Americans who are forced to pay the Obamacare penalty are not upper-middle class or wealthy families, but rather lower-income filers.
IRS data for 2015, the most recent year for which data are available, show more than 6.6 million people were forced to pay the Obamacare fine.
Nearly 79 percent of those required to pay reported adjusted gross incomes between $10,000 and $50,000, which means the penalty disproportionately punishes lower-income and working-class people.”
— Source: Washington Times, Apr. 24, 2018
Without this tax, the Obamacare law dies.
Obamacare’s architect Jonathan Gruber, admitted that the ACA law relied on the “stupidity of the American voter;” and (the ACA law) was written in a “tortured way” ultimately to be non-transparent (Further: Brief report and short video evidence).
CNN reported that by removing the ACA mandate would save Americans $338 Billion from government imposed healthcare taxes. The mandate was effectively removed in 2019.
We can see by the chart above, that the following year (2020) healthcare costs have started to go down. It’s not enough time for everyone to feel that their healthcare costs are going down; but the direction of lowering those healthcare costs is beginning.
Back in Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court seems to be leaning to leave the ACA law in place and won’t make a decision until 2021. The High Court’s decision should not be a political one but a Constitutional one.
The purpose of the Supreme Court is to decide final appellate questions, primarily over constitutional issues, Judicial Review of Congressional and Executive acts, and disputes between the states.
The High Court is not supposed to decide whether they like or dislike a particular law, part of a law, or whether a law is popular or unpopular. They need to determine whether a law as it is written is constitutional or not. The 5th Circuit Court already ruled that the ACA law was unconstitutional. Thus the Supreme Court needs to determine whether the Lower Court ruled correctly or not.
The Underline Legal Arguments Not Being Said.
The underline legal arguments not being said by any party is this:
- Democrats want the ACA to stand, and eventually seek to re-institute the tax mandate (and perhaps increase it). If ACA stands, this could provide the legal basis for future socialized healthcare in America.
- Republicans want ACA to go away so they can show legal basis for any future court battles against government-mandated (socialized) healthcare in America.
Thus the current argument isn’t really to ‘save’ or ‘kill’ Obamacare. This current Supreme Court case is about establishing a legal basis (precedent) for future Supreme Court arguments, but no one wants to publicly admit that.
How to Replace Obamacare if Struck-down.
Obamacare has the lowest participation rate of any healthcare plan in America with 2.5% (or 8.3 million) of the U.S. population enrolled [Report, point 2 E, under Affordable Care Act (ACA) “Obamacare.”]
With such a small number and declining ACA participation, the U.S. government (Congress) could then just move ACA participants to the existing Medicaid program, where many already have.
President Trump already signed an Executive Order protecting anyone with pre-existing health conditions. So the argument that getting rid of Obamacare would somehow deny healthcare to anyone in the USA is FALSE.
President Trump also provided (via Executive Order) short-term healthcare options that are “60% cheaper” than Obamacare.
All of Trump’s Executive Orders could be rescinded by any future U.S. President with a stroke (signature) of a pen.
If Joe Biden becomes the next U. S. President, Biden has promised to “defend” the ACA. Biden said he would put the individual (tax) mandate back in, which will drive healthcare costs more expensive again.
About the Author:
Net Advisor™ studied as a research-based major, and graduated from the University of Southern California (USC). He previously worked in the insurance and financial services industry and maintained nine (9) licenses, (three insurance licenses, and six securities licenses). His work included being a financial industry branch manager, compliance officer, and risk management consultant. He also served as the project manager for a subsidiary of a major healthcare company.
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