Yesterday the Senate Finance committee passed a Healthcare bill that includes health insurance mandates. These mandates require Americans to buy health insurance or else face a fine.
Putting aside all other issues for now, I think this may be unconstitutional.
The Federal Government is one with enumerated powers. That means the founders of the country set up limits to what the Federal government can do. The main source of power for most laws is the Tax and Spend clause and the Interstate Commerce Clause. I don’t see how either of these qualify the Federal Government to mandate that I buy an insurance product.
Bottom line: Do you think the Federal Government has the constitutional authority to mandate the purchase of a commercial product? Could they tell you that you had to buy a GM car? Or an Apple computer? I don’t think so, and I look forward to the debate.
They might try to wiggle around this by somehow pushing it to the states to enforce the law. States have a general policing power that gives them more regulatory authority than the Federal Government. But at first blush I am just not seeing how this can stand up to constitutional scrutiny.
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