Health Insurance Forum

Colorado Health Care repercussion

by mahir on 13/04/10 at 5:42 am

The United State Constitution enshrines a form of limited government to protect the rights of the states under a system of federalism and to protect the individual freedom of American citizens. As health care reform seems poised to become the law of the land, opponents of the legislation in Colorado are seeking ways to undermine the recently enshrined Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act.

Among these opponents is Colorado Health Insurance Attorney General John Suthers, who attached with attorneys general in over ten other states to declare unauthorized the individual insurance mandate, which forces few citizens to buy insurance. The individual mandate to purchase insurance or go through economic sanction violates legitimate principles and lacks constitutional authority. The Constitution provides Congress the enumerated powers to regulate those engaged in interstate commerce. It does not give the Congress the power to compel a citizen, who would otherwise select to be inactive in the marketplace, to buy a product or service and thereby become subject to congressional regulation.

Such an expansion of the current understanding of the Commerce Clause would leave no private sphere of individual commercial decision making beyond the reach of the federal government. It would render the 10th Amendment meaningless. Meanwhile, Jon Caldara of the conservative Independence Institute is collecting signatures in hopes of landing an initiative on November’s ballot that would also challenge the individual mandate for health insurance.