The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will soon release its decision on Obamacare. At the center of the debate is the mandate that individuals have health care insurance coverage.
Opinions of legal experts going into the SCOTUS hearing leaned towards Obamacare surviving. After the fact and the Obama administrations woeful defense the feelings changed. Even the left's hero on SCOTUS, Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has hinted she may be writing the dissenting opinion.
Questions now are aimed at what happens if SCOTUS just eliminates the mandate and leaves the rest of Obamacare intact. It is hard to imagine the law staying in place without the mandate. The financial destruction with the bill would become crippling without the mandate.
Does anybody really believe you can keep things like no denying coverage for pre-existing conditions with the mandate gone? People will just wait until they have a problem and then an insurer would be forced to cover them regardless of expense. And without a cap imagine the damage with no ability to have other people not signing up until they actually have a problem. The list of provisions in the law that would drive costs up gets magnified if people do not need to have coverage.
Obamacare is a great example of everything wrong with the current US government.
It became a giant monstrosity with thousands of little pieces attatched for special interests. Labor unions, insurance companies, big Pharma, hospitals and many other entities played the process. Other groups such as the tort system were spared because of their interests.
The reality of the cost is starting to become apparant to the public. It explains why two thirds of the public want to see some or all of the law overturned by SCOTUS.
It is not just that Obamacare estimates related to the cost were reached with false data and assumptions. The costs to business and individuals are also becoming apparant as insurance premiums skyrocket.
At the same time, some aspects of Obamacare are populist favorites. People love coverage for children to age 26. They love the pre-existing condition assurance. They love requiring larger companies to provide health insurance.
This is the American way. People tend to like the government mandating services. They often forget the cost to everybody else as long as they get a piece of the pie. The same reason everybody hates Congress but loves their Congressman. They do not like the size of the pig but are happy getting their bacon.
Obamacare is a disaster no matter how many times liberals cry about people not using the fallacious name of the "Affordable Care Act." It was born of the chronically broken system of populism and special interests that keep legislators in office. The problem knows no sides or political affiliations.
SCOTUS may very well give DC a chance to start over. Maybe this time we can get a series of simple targeted laws that gradually fix the reaal problems. Maybe we can keep the populist misunderstanding out of the mix. Maybe the special interests on all sides can be kept away.
Sure, why not? And maybe we will get no snow next winter in Alaska.
